


Why leave a lesser hell?

by Okumatte



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell, Awful caretakers, Awful pie, Car Accidents, Creepy guy, Death, F/M, Fighting, Fights, First fanfic on AO3, Foster Care, Frisk is an adult, Frisk is female, Guns, Knives, My First Undertale Fanfic, No specific upload schedule, Orphans, Pleasant Caretakers, Slow Burn, So slow that a sloth would win in a race, Time Shennanigans, Trailer in the woods, Violence, adding tags as I go, criminals, depressing childhood, difficult childhood, job hunting, slow story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 22:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9519383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumatte/pseuds/Okumatte
Summary: In a world where Frisk never entered the underground as a child, she had a much harder childhood than just fighting monsters and eventually freeing them.That's why, as an adult, she was ready to jump into the mountain for just a chance at a better life, despite the fact that she might have died when she hit the bottom.The undertale crew is about to discover that the human they've met has no problem with hurting them, despite the fact that she no longer want to kill, to get exactly what she wants.And what does she want?Hopefully a home as well as a place where others will accept her.-----I will be adding tags and relationships as I go. If the tags are there, then I either have them definitely planned or they are currently written.





	1. And so it began....

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my story. Honeslty, I'm not really good at update schedules, so I'm not going to make one or I'll probably just dissapoint everyone.
> 
> Just an FYI, this fic is going to have some time jumps from present to the past, so that I can slowly reveal Frisk's back-story as well as give the current story.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First chapter guys! Hope you enjoy!

Black. That’s how the cavern looked. It was all black, so black in fact that there was no bottom visible.

“Well, guess this is it,” a female voice said, staring into the icy black cavern.

“This is my last chance to have a life,” the voice echoed in the cavern. The moon was the only illumination on the mountain. The woman stood on the edge of the cavern, her black military boots slightly shining in the moonlight. She held only a violin case and nothing else as though she had nearly no possessions that she greatly cared about in this world. 

No animals could be heard as she stared into the icy darkness. Why was she here again? Oh yeah, she supposed it was because her only choices were to die, become some man’s disgusting slave, or chance her luck in the abysmal depths of this hole. She knew that there was a slim chance that she’d survive, but she supposed dying by her own hand was a better way to go than being taken out by a hit man.

As she stared down the hole, she strengthened her resolve took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and jumped off of the edge into the icy blackness below.

The wind whistled around her head, hair whipping in all directions as she fell into the abyss. She held the violin case upward to avoid it being crushed by her weight. It almost seemed as though she cradled it, keeping it close and protected. She opened her eyes to a view of the moon shining brightly. She thought of only peace and her possible future, not of her past life or the possible demise that awaited her at the bottom of the abyss. This was what she wanted after all. She wanted to take her best possible option and disappear. 

For a moment, she pondered how she had decided upon jumping into the cavern. She had heard rumors of monsters living in the mountain that couldn’t get out. People said that they were below Mt. Ebbott. If there were monsters down in the depths of the mountain, she hoped she wouldn’t die at the bottom of the drop from mere force. 

Down in this mountain, there was a possibility of a new life. There was a possibility of escape. She was fully aware that the monsters may very well be the death of her instead of the drop, but she refused to care. She was tired of everything and this had been the best way for her to escape. Death was better for her than slavery, but life was even better than that.

Otherwise, there had been another reason for her thinking this place would be a good option. If monsters were actually as monstrous and vile as others said….  
…..she hoped they would accept her the way she was.  


____________________

Her early memories are of the snow and warmth.

“Frisk!” her mother called, a warm laugh echoing in the air and hot breath vaporizing in the winter air.

A young girl was romping through the snow. She raced around the park, her small purple hat and purple and pink striped sweater charming other citizens and making her parents laugh.

Her father stared on at his wife and daughter, releasing a small chuckle as the child eluded his wife’s grasp. They had started to play an impromptu game of tag as he watched on, content with his family and warmed by their smiles despite the cold weather. It was nearly Christmas, so he and his family were shrouded in Christmas cheer and warm smiles.

After the game of tag, her mother and her walked around as the father trailed them with his eyes while sitting on the bench. He watched his wife’s blonde hair sway in the breeze while his daughter’s brown bob bounced with her footsteps. He watched his wife teach her daughter to flirt in fatherly dismay, but decided not to intervene in their fun.

A laugh escaped his lips as he watched his daughter wiggle her eyebrows at a frog and throw finger guns at an elderly man. Her antics were viewed as funny by everyone who saw the gestures, while her father sighed even more with every one.

When the sun finally set, the happy family slowly made their way back to their red sedan and secured Frisk in the booster seat before they rode away, ready to go home and make a pleasant dinner. The car’s atmosphere was cheery and peaceful, a feeling of content spread throughout. The drive was slow and careful, her father being aware of the mediocre road conditions and adjusting for them carefully. Frisk would later recall that she had fallen asleep in the back, lulled to sleep by the sound of the road and the steady, smooth movement of the vehicle.

All she remembers after that was pain and screaming. Her mother screamed and her father wailed as a semi-truck lost control on the icy roads, it’s weight barreling towards them. She had jolted awake and was fully disoriented. She began to cry, confused by the loud sounds still ringing in her ear and the overwhelming pain she was experiencing. 

Frisk had reached out for her parents, but all she saw was them hanging at strange angles, seemingly asleep. She tried calling out to them, but didn’t recall whether her voice formed or not. Her mother’s hair was stained and wet, a dark red soaking it and her head was at an odd angle. Her father was laying against the steering wheel and his clothes were all bathed in the red liquid. They were both eerily silent, but frisk couldn’t hear it as her ears were still affected by the impact. Moments later, there were people there. She hadn’t seen them at first because the entire winshield was covered in spiderweb cracks.

The people looked in the car, spotting her immediately, possibly because she was still crying. A few people forced open the door. She saw people on phones talking in hurried voices as others were running towards the location. It was at this point when she began to pass out and her vision started to become fuzzy. She heard frantic yelling, but could make out none of the words as she slowly faded into the darkness.


	2. Onward!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Frisk begins her Journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to use this space to thank everyone who started reading my work and give thanks for the bookmark/kudos!

A low groan echoed through the cavern, the lone human female on the patch of buttercups bein the source. She warily becan to stand, her limbs giving slight protest while some blood dripped down her face. She looked scuffed up and a bit winded, but otherwise seemed rather unfased. She looked up warily at first, but soon she was jumping for joy. She had survived! What luck!

Her next course of action was to check her clothing, to see if there were some problems she hadn’t noticed with her health. Normally she would feel the pain, but she still had adrenaline from the fall and she knew it was great at shifting her focuses elsewhere. She inspected her tight black pants, running her hands gently up them to inspect any possible breakage or bruising. She checked her thigh holster, ensuring that her knife was still there. After that, she ensured that her belt would still hold and ran her fingers underneath it, to yet again check for bruising. She then took off her military green jacket. It had a gray sweatshirt-material hood but had a thicker material as the coat’s base, which made it ideal for varying situations. She checked her sweater next. It looked as though she had bled on the purple and pink striped sweater. She would have to acquire a new one in the future if she could. She checked her arms in the same way she did with her legs at this point and used the already dirtied sweater to wipe off most of the blood she felt on her face.

She quickly combed her hands through her choppy, short locks and then went to inspect her violin case. It housed the only possession she truly was attached to. She opened the case and then inspected each piece of her baby, checking for any new scuffs or scratches and smily warmly at it when there were none.

At this point, she now had enough time to check her surroundings. There was a bright hole above, presumably the one she fell down, and buttercups below her feet. They must’ve lightened her fall. She quickly removed herself from the small patch and tried to fix the flowers she had mussed up. They were a bit worse for wear in some areas, but mostly intact. There was no need to be destructive in her new life, she reasoned.

The rest of the cavern was rocks mostly, except for a door. As she walked through it, she suddenly noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Something yellow. It moved. She sheithed her knife in a defensive stance and began scanning the area.

“Hello? Are you a human?”

She instinctively spun around, still brandishing the knife. Seeing no-one, she remained rigid, yet confused.

“Down here”

She quickly looked down to see a small flower, with somewhat torn petals and… a worried…face?

“My name’s Flowey, what’s yours?”

“Hmmm…. I go by many names. For now… call me KK,” she replied curtly, her stance not relaxing one bit.

“So you’re human, right? You really shouldn’t have come down here. If we stay here long enough, she’ll kill you”

“She?” she questioned, slightly relaxing, sensing the flower had no ill intent.

“The caretaker of the ruins. She’s crazy. She killed quite a few of the other ones. We should leave before she comes.”

‘KK’ paused to think. Should she trust the flower who was warning her of the crazy homicidal maniac? After contemplating it, she really saw no reason not to trust him. And if it didn’t turn out the way she intended, she could always make it go her way with a little bit of what she liked to call ‘physical persuasion’.

“So how do we avoid her?”

“I’m not sure if we can. She is always patrolling the ruins and we are at the far end of them. The entrance to the rest of the underground is in the basement of her house, so not getting caught would be really difficult. If we do get caught, at least we could escape in the middle of the night,” the flower answered honestly.

She slightly squinted her eyes at this, slightly upset by the fact that she was getting into dangerous situations as soon as she entered this place.

“After that, you need to go through the entire underground and you’ll need to take a boss monster soul to get out. The caretaker of the ruins is also a boss monster if you want to take hers I guess..”

She noticed that Flowey seemed slightly saddened by the thought of her killing the woman he spoke of as crazy. The fact that he was hesitant to do so was something she recognized, as she had seen it a few times in the past. However, the fact that she could kill the woman didn’t matter to her, as she didn’t intend to leave this place.

“Flowey, I think you should know that I don’t intend to leave this place. I’ve heard about monsters living down here and figured this was my last chance at life, so I’m not going to leave. I doubt any life I live down here is worse than what I would face aboveground,” she stated, her face devoid of emotions.

“Don’t you understand? It’s kill or be killed here! They’ll kill you! They’ll kill you for being a human! And then, once they have the last soul, they’ll kill everyone aboveground too!” Flowy sounded distressed, but she waved him off.

“If I die, then I die. However, I will do everything in my power to prevent it,” she stated, her face stll devoid of emotions, but her eyes glowing with fiery determination.

“Damn, I’m too late!” Flowey said under his breath, dissappearing into the earth below them.

As soon as she looked at Flowey again, KK felt an immense heat pass by where the flower had previously been.

“What the-“

“Oh dear, what a horrible creature, torturing a poor youth!”

KK looked ahead of her, slightly shocked by the fireball that just passed her.

She saw a slightly disheveled goat woman walking towards her. White fur covered her, yet it seemed slightly gray in patches and a bit unkempt. Her eyes were red and didn’t seem entirely sane. She had on a purple dress and was bipedal, but her dress alwo was slightly gray and a bit wrinkled. She seemed concerned for KK’s welfare, but obviously hadn’t judged the situation before her accurately.

“My, a human! I am sorry for that creature’s treatment my dear. Please, come with me deary.”

She seemed cheery enough, but KK didn’t trust her one bit. If she was like Flowey had said, then she was homicidal and not in her right mind. Then again, she didn’t entirely trust Flowey either, as she had no basis to establish trust. He had talked to her and seemed kind enough, but words didn’t tell the whole story. She had learned that long ago.

____________________

Machines beeped and people flew by hurriedly. Everything smelled sterile and clean and all she felt was pain. She groaned, her tiny voice sounding gravely because of disuse. She realized soon enough that it was far too bright, and slowly closed her eyes again, waiting for the pleasant embrace of sleep to take her once again.

She woke up later, feeling less disoriented and more numb than pained. She groaned again, her voice still somewhat gravelly. A nurse was in the room this time and seemed excited, but was also giving her a pitying glance.

“Hello darling, how are you feeling?”

“Numb all over” she said, immediately going into a coughing fit afterwards.

The nurse adjusted her IV slightly.

“The doctor will be in soon deary, okay? Then you’ll have some other company if you’re feeling up to it, the nurse stated, pitying glance returing.

Frisk nodded because talking was a bit difficult at the moment.

Soon after, the doctor came in and began doing routine things - checking her chart and vitals, asking her some questions, and telling her about her health in an easy to understand way. He smiled brightly, even though the smile was a bit strained, and asked her if she was feeling up to more company. She shrugged, not caring who was coming to see her as she was disoriented and drugged. The doctor took the shrug as a ‘yes’ and promptly strolled out.

A man and a woman strolled in, but they were certainly not her parents. They wore suits and looked very professional.

The girl looked up at them questioningly, but didn’t say anything to them.

The woman gave the same pitying glance that the nurse had and Frisk grew a bit panicked. Why were they pitying her? Sure, she was in the hospital, but she didn’t think she deserved those glances just because of that.

The woman spoke first.

“Frisk dear, do you remember why you’re here?”

Frisk cleared her throat in an attemp to make her voice usable.

“I remember loud noises and yelling…” she admitted, not remembering much else.

“You were in a traffic accident, honey. A semi truck lost control and your car was flipped, dear.”

“What about mom and dad? Are they hurt too?”

The woman made a horrifying face that held pity and sadness, but also held something that could be described as ‘steely resolve’. To be honest, Frisk was getting scared just looking at her face.

After some time, the woman finally continued talking. Throughout all of this, the man just stared at the wall away from both of them, clutching his coffee and standing in a slightly stiff manner, as though he was extremely uncomfortable with the situation at hand.

“Dearie, your parents can no longer care for you. They were both seriously injured in the accident and are here on possible long-term observation,” she stated, her voice quiet, but still a bit shaky. 

Frisk was no idiot. She knew what the woman was saying. Her parents were probably going to die. She looked down at her tiny hands that clutched her hospital sheet and realized that she was alone now. Her eyes began tearing up and the woman patiently waited as Frisk silently cried. She didn’t gasp for air or wail, as the information just wasn’t currently clicking in her brain. Her mother and father were a huge part of her young life and she couldn’t easily contemplate life without them.

At this point the man turned around. His eyes were steely, but Frisk sensed an uncomfortablenesss in them, as though he also felt bad, but was better at masking his feelings than the woman.

“Frisk,” he started, voice as steely as his face, “have you ever heard of foster care?"


	3. The Journey with a boring beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Frisk goes through the ruins and goes to her new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's up guys? I warned you about the unusual schedule at the beginning, but here's the next chapter!
> 
> And thanks for all the kudos and bookmarks!

KK followed the strange goat woman without much complaint, but she was definitely wary of her. After the goat woman’s initial encounter and her scaring Flowey away, she had introduced herself as Toriel. KK found the entire situation strange by the lack of other creatures, but she was removed from her thoughts by Toriel speaking to her.

“Throughout these ruins, there are many puzzles,” she began.

Toriel quickly flipped a switch and horrifyingly long spikes with rust (and… was that blood?) on them quickly sprung up from the ground. Toriel flipped the switch again and they disappeared.

“They are somewhat dangerous though, so stay close to me. I don’t want you to be dismembered,” Toriel spoke in a nonchalant, cheery voice. KK’s eyes widened in alarm, but she said nothing. She was going to have to be on her guard in this place. ‘Somewhat dangerous’ her ass. She was suddenly thankful for the mad woman, but only because she could warn KK about the potential environmental dangers. Then again, Flowey might have been able to do the same if given the chance.

Thus, they continued. Toriel guiding KK through the traps nonchalantly while KK marveled at the deadly obstacles. She wondered if the monsters down here used all of their potential for pure death traps, or if they had built even more amazing things below the mountain.

At some point, KK had noticed the remains of a dummy. Toriel had ignored it, but KK was slightly uncomfortable with the way that it’s head had been entirely torn off, stuffing littering the ground and fabric in disrepair. It was strange how the dummy had made KK believe that, at some point, it might have been alive. However, her thoughts were cut short as Toriel continued walking.

“Here dear,” Toriel said, her and KK deep in the ruins at that point. She handed KK a brick of a cell phone. Frisk thought to refuse it, but then realized that it probably worked differently than above-ground cellphones. She also hadn’t been able to charge her phone in a while, nor did she care to, and was fine with using a number that was completely disconnected from her previous life.

“This is for you to contact me. Feel free to call me if you wish. My house is ahead, but I need to prepare for your arrival, so I need to procure supplies. Stay here if you wish, or try the puzzles, but don’t try to leave the ruins,” her face suddenly became dark, twisted even “or else”.

KK felt a slight shiver at her horrifying face. It was always startling to see someone who had previously been seemingly kind suddenly evolve into a full blown demon. However, she quickly regained her composure and nodded at the monster, keeping communication at a minimum.

As Toriel walked off, KK pocketed the phone and felt a presence behind her. Spinning around, she noticed that the tattered-looking flower was back.

“I only came out because you’re interesting and Toriel left, no other reason. Not because I’m worried for you or anything.”

Flowey was blushing. KK found it amusing and placed it in the back of her mind as useful information when sorting out who she trusted more in this place. Flowey was definitely higher up than Toriel at this point.

“Anyway,” Flowey continued, “as I was telling you before, if you want to get out of the ruins, which I would advise because the keeper of the ruins pretty much kills everyone around here, you’ll need to get into her basement and go through a door. It’s very heavy, so I would advise you save a bit of time to open it. If Toriel finds you trying to get out, she’s probably going to kill you. And if you stay too long? She’s also probably going to kill you.”

KK listened patiently, Flowey travelling in the dirt behind her as she continued down the path.

After some time, and some deadly puzzles, KK discovered a ghost.

“Hey, ghostie, you’re blocking the path. Please move,” KK said, nonthreateningly but with slight impatience.

The ghost just grumbled and continued to pretend to sleep. KK glared at it with unblinking eyes, her expression blank but seemingly menacing. After a moment, she just said “Fine” and walked right through the ghost.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You think it’s alright to just walk through people?” the ghost screeched.

KK just turned back and said “When I ask them to move and they ignore me? Sure. Not like I care if you get pissy because you were pretending to sleep” She then continued walking, Flowey staying silent and occasionally looking back to see if Napstablook was following them.

“I guess Napstablook is one of the only beings Toriel has no interest in killing. He probably wouldn’t leave any remains if he died anyway. I’m not even sure if ghosts can die? It’s a question for the ages,” Flowy said, beginning to ramble. KK listened, but only to things she found important, sometimes ignoring her companion outright. He spoke too much.

It felt like they had walked forever when they finally arrived at the goat woman’s house. And as they got closer, KK smelled something simply awful. It was sweet, yet indescribably disgusting smelling at the same time.

“It’s one of her pies. She’ll probably want you to eat it.” KK stared blankly into space as she paused her walking, steeling herself for the inevitable before continuing.

____________________________________

The first house Frisk went to was overfilled. One woman was taking care of all of the children, 12 in total, not including Frisk. There were 6 girls and 6 boys besides her, living in 4 bedrooms.

In her room, there was Cindy and Mindy, two identical twins who were bubbly and had shining blonde hair. They had been living in this foster home all of their lives and always talked about how they enjoyed the place. They shared one bed and always had twin pigtails, so Frisk could recognize them easily from far away, 4 blonde pigtails swaying in the breeze. However, they often only hung around together or with the other set of twins in their school, so Frisk never got to become their friend.

Next, there was Melissa. She liked to keep up appearances, acting as an angel around adults and being a little brat when interacting with other children alone. Frisk hated having to share a bunk with her, but had no choice in the matter. Frisk of course had the lower bed because Melissa simply HAD to have the upper one. Like hell Frisk was ever going to be friends with such a conceited brat.

In the top bunk with the twins, there was Cher. She was 14, liked bubble gum an boys, and refused to hang out with someone as young as frisk. Cher was often seen hanging out with the other neighborhood teenagers and had raven-black hair. She was half Asian, half Caucasian and absolutely demanded vegetarian options at all meals.

The other girl room had Mary, a chocolate-brown skinned 8-year-old who had a passion for art, and Carrie, a 12-year-old girl with very pale skin and smooth brown hair that enjoyed art and music. The two girls got along swimmingly and only let people with an interest for art and some artistic talent join their group of friends. Frisk liked the occasional crayon drawing, but wouldn’t say she was interested or talented enough to be friends with them.

In the first boys room, Cain and Tristam shared a bed. Cain was 15 and Tristam was 17. They both had been in juvie for some crime or another, refusing to actually tell of the crime and giving a different explanation every time. Cain often claimed he had stolen a Harley, but sometimes it was a Mustang or his birth-mom’s mini-van. Tristam had told a wide variety of stories from bringing a gun to school to selling cocaine with the local gang. The two of them never interacted much with the younger kids though, them being teenagers who didn’t want to be ‘uncool’.

Trent and Jacob occupied the other bed in the teen’s room. Trent was a spunky child of 8 who was strong-willed and a natural leader. Jacob was a shy, scared boy who followed Trent everywhere and treated the other boy like he was a god. He would get the same haircut, clothes, and toys that Trent got. According to the caretaker, the boys were both the same age, and had the same accident happen to them. Their family dog had saved them from a house fire, and had perished with the parents upon trying to save them as well. However, Trent’s family had been loving and kind, while Jacob’s family was neglectful and would abuse him, making him into the timid boy he was now. Jacob tried to store food whenever he could, and would return said food when Trent told him it was the right thing to do. Trent interacted with everyone, but Jacob only interacted with him. Frisk didn’t really pay them much attention, and didn’t interact with them much either.

In the last room, there was Phil. He was a child of 3 and obsessed with the mere idea of eating paste. He didn’t eat paste himself, but thought that everyone who did was cool. As to why Phil thought eating paste was cool, he had once said that he tried it and hated the taste of it. Apparently from that he drew the conclusion that people who ate paste had strong stomachs, which was apparently cool in his book. He would refuse to believe others were cool unless they had eaten paste, which is precisely why he didn’t think Frisk was cool. He had managed to get Trent and Jacob to eat it once and could be occasionally be seen trailing behind them. He also loved interacting with the last child and only other child in his room, Frederick. Frederick was a 16-month old baby and was primarily with the caretaker most of the time, but when he was in his crib, Phil would watch him for hours on end some time because he had dreamed of having a younger brother. Frisk tended to avoid both of them because Phil was too strange and Frederick too young to hold her interests.

Frisk had been there a year when the caretaker finally requested she get transferred. She had overheard the phone conversation herself.

“I don’t think Annabelle belongs here,” the caretaker said. Frisk flinched at her first name. Her parents had always called her Frisk, her middle name, because Frisk liked how gender-neutral it was. “I only want to raise social children, and Annabelle is far too quiet and reserved. She has been here a year and still doesn’t interact well with the others. Please send her somewhere where they can take care of her needs.”  
Frisk was taken away a week after that and sent to a new home, or maybe just a “living place” because, like the last place she stayed, she refused to call it “home”.


	4. Plodding Along

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel's pie, escape plans, and another home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bam! Another chapter.
> 
> I have work tomorrow and it's 1AM. Why am I doing this.
> 
> Thanks for the kudos guys!
> 
> Hope my fic is living up to your expectations!

Toriels’s house seemed as though it was homely at one time, but had suffered enough that the homely feeling eventually left and all that remained was the faded remains of past memories. KK observed all that there was to see in this new place, from the strangely stuttering fireplace to the filthy kitchen. As soon as she had knocked on the door, Toriel had come running, pleased by the fact that KK was in her home. Flowey lad left her with a cautious tone, but agreed to meet her later in the evening to help her plot her escape from the mad woman’s house.

“Welcome home, child!” she said, in a strangely possessive and violent tone that was far from ‘comforting’, but still seemed as though it aimed to give off the feeling of a mother welcoming her offspring home.

“Hello, Toriel. I hope you realize that I am an adult.” KK retorted, no malice in her voice.

“Oh dear, I am sorry. How old are you, dear?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Well, deary, that is far younger than me so I can only think of you as a child. Humans age far too quickly, after all”

All of a sudden, Toriel noticed KK’s stained sweater. “Oh dear, I’ll show you to your room. I hope you will enjoy staying there. I have plenty of other clothing for you to select there!” With that, KK was ushered away to a child’s room. There were drawings on the walls and the bed was far too short for her, but true to the woman’s word, there were also plenty of extra, clean clothes. There was also an assortment of different sized shoes, which KK found strange. Why did this woman have so many different sizes of clothing, both adult and child size? That was highly suspicious. Maybe she killed the previous owners? Flowey had said something along those lines. KK merely shrugged, looking through the available clothing. She stripped off her coat, then removed her purple and pink sweater.

It was strange, how quick she was to remove the sweater. She stared at the bloodied clothing in her hands, slowly feeling the slightly scratchy texture. It was the last memento from her parents and now it was ruined. She stared at if for a moment, then placed it, along with her violin case, off to the side of the bed, leaving her decision to abandon it for later. She was relatively cold in only her black tank-top, so she took to looking through the possibly-owned-by-people-Toriel-killed clothing stash. After searching for a while, she came across a sweater nearly identical to her own memento, but it was black with red stripes. Well, such a find definitely fit her color preference better. Checking for holes or imperfections and finding none, she donned the sweater and then put the coat back on.

She then decided that rest was for the best, despite the fact that she didn’t trust Toriel at all. KK was hoping that the possibility of a guest eating her strangely enticing, yet disgusting smelling pie was incentive enough to keep her alive, at least for a night. KK was hoping to not need force to escape Toriel’s house, but was betting that it would be necessary given how insane the woman seemed. So, on that note, she slipped onto bed, not even bothering to take the boots off as they didn’t fit on the short bed, and fell into a somewhat restful sleep.

She was awoken by a pounding fist on the door and Toriel opening it rather quickly.

“Are you ready for pie, young one?” she asked in a low voice, one red eye seemingly glowing on the other side of the door.

KK just rubbed her eyes and looked up at the woman. Her getting out of bed seemed to appease the woman enough, so Toriel just left the door open, waiting for KK to follow her of her own accord.

KK followed the goat woman, smelling the awful scent of whatever the woman had made and called ‘pie’. She did not show how disgusted she was though, trying to avoid anything that could possibly set the woman off. Out of the corner of KK’s eyes, she noticed Flowey in a lone flower arrangement as she passed it, but made no move to talk with him. He must’ve snuck in at some point to ensure that she was fine. It was … nice. And definitely not something she was used to her. Anyone checking that she was fine was foreign, but appreciated. She felt a strange warmth in her heart from such a small act of caring. And in that moment, she missed the expression on Flowy change from scared to surprised as she passed him, choosing to pay more attention to the task at hand.

Toriel lead her to the table and placed a piece of pie in front of her, staring expectantly.

“Do you have cutlery, maam? A fork maybe?” KK asked, not giving away her disgust with the ‘food’ she was expected to eat.

“Oh dear, I must’ve forgot. Excuse me child, I will be right back.”

Toriel left and KK glanced at Flowey, making a gagging motion, then patiently awaited the woman’s return.

“Here you are! Please tell me how my pie tastes. My children used to love it!” She handed KK the fork.

KK swallowed, steeling herself for the worst and just took a bite. It tasted. Absolutely. Vile. It smelled like rotting flesh mixed with maple syrup and the taste was close to what she expected gym socks, two-week old squirrel road-kill, and crystallized honey to taste like if mixed. However, the worst part wasn’t the taste however, as the texture was even more horrifying. There were clumps of sugar mixed with some strange custard with pockets of what felt like wet sand inside of it. The crust was mushy, not rigid or crispy, and was in some parts disturbingly stringy. KK internally felt like puking, but held it down, giving a shaky smile.

“It tastes like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. What flavor is it?”

Toriel grinned madly, stating only that “A Chef never reveals her secrets”. She made KK eat the entire piece as she watched, claiming that growing youngsters needed to eat their entire meal. She asked if KK wanted seconds, but KK avoided more of the pie by stating she was full. She had indeed lost her appetite, but it was from the ‘pie’ churning in her stomach. The mystery-flavor pie that even underfunded public schools wouldn’t serve was enough to make anyone want to cut their stomach open and puke via a forceful cesarean section higher up than usual, but somehow KK kept it down, still giving off the shaky smile. After she ate the pie, she asked the woman if she could now go to bed, and Toriel, pleased from her eating the entire piece without complaint, allowed it.

When Toriel was distracted and KK was in the dark child’s room, KK noticed a small figure slip under the door. It was Flowey. She didn’t turn on the light, choosing to not warn Toriel of her being still awake.

“Oh god, you ate it,” Flowey groaned, distraught that he had to watch her eat something so horrid “the whole thing, too. That was incredible. In an entirely disgusting way, that is.”

“Yeah, the thing was file. Had some weird grainy and stringy textures in it. Don’t tell me what’s in it. I can guess and I don’t want confirmations on my guesses. I ate it to appease her. You said she’d probably kill me if I upset her, so I did what I had to do.”

Flowey nodded in approval “Yeah, actually the last child died like that. She refused to eat that atrocity and didn’t sense any danger from Toriel. Crazy goat strangled her right there an after she died, shoveled the entire pie down her throat. It was horrifying to watch…..” Flowey trialed off, realizing that he was shaking and had gone off on a tangent.

KK just raised her eyebrows, only giving slight indication of being mildly uncomfortable. “So, escape plan?” she asked, looking at the Flower hopefully. He had the most information about this place, after all.

____________________

Her next ‘guardians’ were Gary and Stephanie. Stephanie was a 25 year old woman who apparently used to have dreams, but seemed to have given up on them at some point. Now all she did was talk about what she wanted to do without acting on it at all. Gary was a 50 year old man who wore a wife beater and raggedy sports shorts nearly all the time. In all the ways that Stephanie could be found attractive, Gary was not. She was young, he seemed older than he was. Stephanie was thin and had nice skin while Gary sported a beer-belly and his skin looked like he had spent far too long in the sun without taking proper precautions. Stephanie was a dreamer, while Gary had given up on his hopes and dreams a long time ago, having replaced them with the simple wishes of sitting down, watching sports on television, and simply getting his desired substance of the night.

Stephanie had told Frisk once that they had gotten married as spur of the moment thing in Las Vegas when they were both thoroughly intoxicated. Frisk thought that that was a disgusting idea, seeing as they had been married for nearly four years, meaning that Stephanie had just begun to be able to drink legally at that point an this man was 46 when he had married her. The entire situation wouldn’t have been disgusting if they actually loved each other, but their marriage was loveless. The couple’s only bonding moments were when they both consumed a lot of addictive substances together on the floor and either passed out, or had coitus out in the open. Frisk was just glad they didn’t involve her in any of her habits.

The two of them usually just ignored the young girl. Stephanie was the only one who would occasionally talk to her, and usually she was trying to act like the cool older sibling instead of the adult foster ‘parent’ that she was supposed to be

“Annie!” Stephanie yelled, interrupting her thought process. “Sorry hun, but could you go into your room? Gary and I are gonna partake in some … adult activities. Do your homework or something?”

Frisk just grunted and left. She hated when they called her ‘Annie’, as if ‘Annabelle wasn’t bad enough. She wasn’t going to correct anyone though. ‘Frisk’ was reserved for her parents and others had to earn the right to call her that name. In the mean time, she would go by whatever name the people wanted to call her. Frisk opened up the door to a tiny room that looked like it was meant to be a large bathroom originally, but was changed at last minute and made into an extra room, original plans be damned. She had already done her homework and had no hobbies, so she just settled down on the bare mattress. There was no frame for the mattress and it only had a flat sheet and a blanket, but she felt determined to live, no matter what conditions she lived in. She glanced over at her small back-pack and her tiny pile of clothing. She had 2 shirts, one pair of pants, one pair of shorts, one sweater, and a single pair of shoes. Nothing else was present in the room besides a dirty window, not even a piece of furniture or a closet. She willed herself to sleep, ignoring the strange rantings from the ‘adults’ in the next room. Looks like they took acid. Again.

Frisk was woken up by the two adults fighting.

“It’s not worth it Stephanie. That thing is not a sustainable way to fund the drugs!”

“It at least nets us an extra $300 a month! That’s enough to get a lot of cheap beer! Maybe some vodka and smokes!”

“I don’t like it in our house! We should just give it back! $300 isn’t worth our privacy. Most of the money goes to the damn school or its food anyway.”

“Fine, I’ll call the agency. Hope you’re okay with less alcohol, Gary”

“You know I hate children, Stephanie. I don’t even know why you decided this in the first place!”

“Because your cocaine and my weed cost a lot of money!”

“Just call the dam agency, woman.”

The next day, Frisk was sent elsewhere. She was glad to be rid of those two, but dreaded the fact that the next house could be worse.


	5. Glad to be going

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk leaves Toriel and another family behind.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Flowey whispered. “We need to wait until goat-hag goes to sleep, then we sneak into the basement, go through the door, and end up in snow-hell.”

KK raised her eyebrows at his description. She also could tell that he didn’t excel at thinking of plans. That plan had been beyond obvious, but somehow she doubted Toriel would stay asleep during the entire thing.

“That was a pretty obvious plan, Flowey. I’ll have to prepare in case she catches us. Just to confirm, if she finds me down there, she will attempt to kill me, correct?”

“One-hundred percent, she will try to kill you. She has abandonment issues. The kind where if she can’t have you, nobody can have you. She’s super protective of anything that pleases her and just kills everything else. Crazy goat….” He murmured off into silence.

“Alright, I will prepare my weapon. Not sure where to put the case though. I don’t want to leave it, but it will be a burden…”

“Oh, what about the item slots in your cell phone?”

“The what?”

“Oh, I guess she didn’t explain? Not that I would trust her to. Look, KK, the cell phone she gave you has a dimensional box in it, uniquely attuned to the user’s soul, that will allow you to store some items, within a reasonable size, inside of the void. So basically, magic can hold stuff in your phone. There are also some public chests, but I think they’ve been destroyed again. Heard there was another fight that got out of hand. Damn barbarians.”

“Interesting. So, can I store this sweater in there?” she asked. Flowey looked at the dirtied thing she had picked off of her strange case and questioned why she even wanted to keep bloody clothing, but shrugged it off because he actually didn’t care.

“Sure.”

“How do I use the dimensional box?”

“Select which slot you want to use in your phone, scan the item, and select it again in the phone to remove it. Your case should also fit, even though I’m not sure what the hell is in it.”

“My baby is in it. It’s essentially our best possible counter measure. A safety precaution if you will, and also my long-time friend.”

Flowey was confused, but didn’t care enough to question it. He was sure he would see whatever it was soon enough.

KK waited until she heard the lumbering steps of Toriel fade into her doorway before opening the case. Flowey stared over its edge, confused by the various pieces of metal. He had no inkling to what it was, he just watched KK assemble it. It took her only a few moments, but when she was finished, it was rather tall and imposing looking. It was sleek, black, long, and had blades on one end.

“Are firearms uncommon down here?” KK inquired, seeing Flowey’s inquisitive gaze.

“I’ve never seen anything like that, so I suppose? What is it?”

“It’s a weapon. This is my custom sniper rifle. It’s served me well over the years. It’s one of the only possessions of my past life that I care to keep. It also happens to be a bayonet, for when one needs the good old comforts of slicing close combat. I make custom ammo for it, but I suppose once they run out, I will need to find a way to make said ammo,” she hummed with slight disappointment at the reality of the situation. “Oh well, it’s still my baby, ammo or not.”

Flowey didn’t understand these ‘firearms’, but she had said it was custom, which probably was just a testament to her familiarity with said weapon. It also gave her confidence and made her soul glow once more, just like when she had noticed him watching over her. He could sense her brilliantly red soul glow again before it went back to the dingy, gray color he had seen previously. He briefly wondered why her soul did such strange color changes before realizing that they were on a schedule.

He looked over at KK and there she was, her items in the dimensional box already. She was ready to go and waiting on him to take the lead.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said, his voice still subdued.

They snuck quietly out of the door and Flowey lead the way down the steps. KK somehow avoided making creaking noises at all but Flowey paid it no mind. It didn’t matter how she did it, just that she made as little noise as possible. They both crept along the hallways, burn marks littered everywhere as though someone had tried to torch the place. She looked at them questioningly and Flowey just gestured up to where Toriel was. KK was confused, but decided that making noise about it was too risky. Soon, they were at a big door, one that Flowey said lead to ‘snow-hell’. As soon as her and the flower tried to push the door, they both realized that silence was useless. The door made screeching noises as they pushed it and moved extremely slowly in the process. If Toriel hadn’t heard their attempt, she was probably asleep with an air horn strapped on both sides of her head.

They hear stomping and an enormous growl. She was coming. KK and Flowey both desperately pushed harder, but to no avail, as the door only inched along at a snail’s pace and the woman was approaching at an incredibly fast pace, probably due to her not taking any efforts to be quiet. There was no need, they were cornered anyway.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO ESCAPE!?” the monster yelled. The house vibrated from the sheer volume of her voice.

“I’LL KILL YOU, YOU DAMN UNGRATEFUL BRAT!” she bellowed once more.

At this point, KK was no longer pushing on the door and had picked up her sniper rifle. It was already loaded and the safety had been off since she had finished assembling it. She pointed it at the darkness, eyes focused, breathing steadily. She could hear her heartbeat, but it wasn’t beating erratically. In fact, the feeling was familiar and she just looked forward into the dark, focused and prepared while Flowey cowered in the corner.

It was at that moment that KK saw Toriel bounding down the hall. Before even getting the chance to pull the trigger, the entire room went blacker than even the dark hall had been previously. Yet, somehow, KK could see the enraged goat-woman very clearly. Then, she felt a strange pull, like someone tugging her very life by a string. She heard a sound like being underwater and felt something pop out of her. She looked down, surprised, and saw a strangely gray heart. It had strangely darker parts, but they didn’t appear to be cracks. They were just strange discolorations on the heart-like object.

However, she had no more time to observe whatever the heart-like object was when fire came towards her. She looked up, surprised, and instinctively dodged the blast. She marveled at the heart as it followed her dodging motion, as though part of herself. Then, she noticed the strange ‘menu’ of some sort that had popped up in front of her. Fight? Act? Item? Mercy? That was a strange thing to be in this woman’s basement. Maybe it was related to this strange trippy experience she was having. Was it right for her to wonder is she was slowly dying by poisoning and the entire adventure so far was just a very vivid hallucination that was just produced by her dying mind?

She decided that now was not the time for such thoughts, as she was alive, at least in a sense, in that very moment. She decided to press ‘act’. Oh good, there was an option to ‘check’. Understanding an enemy was very important for defeating an enemy she supposed.

All she got in response to her actions was a couple of lines rattled off from what sounded like a strange disembodied voice in her head.

* Toriel - ATK Too much for you to handle DEF nunya  
* Crazy homicidal bitch on the outside, grieving mother on the inside.  
* Maybe there’s a way to induce temporary sanity on her, but no one can say for sure.  
* Oh yeah, and she killed probably about 12 kids due to abandonment issues. Good luck.

 _Well, at least that info was somewhat helpful?_ KK thought.

Toriel responded to the check with more fire. KK kept dodging but damn if it wasn’t hot in this underground crock-pop of a tunnel. No wonder the wall looked like there was a one-on-one battle between two tanks down here.

“FIGHT ME!” Toriel howled, causing KK to falter for a minute, getting one or two of her hair singed.

“YOU WON’T LAST TWO MINUTES OUT THERE!”

“And what, will I live for two minutes down here?”

KK saw the strange options flash in front of her and had no qualms choosing ‘Fight’ against the crazy bitch that was trying to burn her. She promptly stood stock still, rifle at the ready. She aimed toward Toriel, the goat woman looking ever unimpressed. KK breathed in slowly, and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot out of the gun, only slightly pushing the young woman back from the aftershock. Only milliseconds after, Toriel’s roar of pain echoed through the cavern. KK had hit her square in the shoulder, exactly where she had been aiming. The shot also happened to occupy both of Toriel’s hands, as she could not move one arm in fear of it falling off and the other held the spot she had shot.

“I’m guessing, Toriel, that you just wanted me as some ‘child’ that you could control?”

Toriel said nothing, looking KK straight in the eye, still defiant in her pain.

“I’ve seen your type. And here’s the thing, Toriel. I am no longer a child and will no longer allow myself to be controlled just for my own safety. It’s humiliating and won’t help either of us in the end. If you really wanted to act like a mother, you would support me in my decision and wish me off. Also, I have proven that I don’t care about hurting others. Hopefully this will try to dissuade you from ‘protecting’ me from the world outside of this door, despite the fact that I could get killed on either side of said door.”

Toriel just listened the entire time. She had begun crying, with small snarls of disapproval mixed in, as though she had wanted to retort, but didn’t know what to say in such a situation.

“I… just wanted someone to protect. I wanted them to be mine. I wanted a precious child to have as my own and have it cherish me as much as I cherish it. I see now that you cannot fulfill said role. No perfect child would have to hurt their mother. I… cannot control myself when I think that I am going to be alone again. Maybe one day we may be able to hold such a relationship, but as it is I would ask you to leave before I fall back into my isolated mindset. The pain has provided a temporary clarity for me and I truly don’t want to hurt you. I don’t know if you can protect yourself from death, but since you’re an adult and I don’t trust myself to keep you safe, even when it would be only the two of us, I know that you should leave. My one request is a…. hug… before you leave.”

KK squinted her eyes at the goat. If she was reading the cues right, the woman had begun to display a fraction of her previously horrifying expression in the last sentence. A hug… KK really didn’t trust that notion with a crazy goat that tried to burn her.

Toriel’s eye twitched as KK just stood there, eyes squinted more than usual, her one hand stroking her chin, the other holding her rifle against her shoulder in the air. KK didn’t like Toriel’s smile at the moment.

“No hugs. Maybe I’ll visit, but I won’t come back in.”

“YOU UNGRATEFUL-”

KK swung the rifle in an arc, slightly slicing the woman’s cheek with the bayonet part of her rifle. Pain seemed to be the only way to keep her sane, after all. And the cut was essentially a threat. KK could tell that force and dominance seemed to be the law in this place.

“You’re right, please leave. Thank you for for sparing me death. Now go.”

*Toriel is sparing you.

KK pressed the ‘Mercy’ button on the strange console.

* Congratulations, you spared Toriel. Pussy.  
* You got 0 EXP and some gold. I ain’t counting it. Do it yourself.

After hearing the strange voice speak in her head, she had only a split second before the heart finished sliding into her to notice that it was red and not gray. Strange. Maybe it changes color for a reason?

She gave Toriel one more glance and a nod before KK and Flowey pushed at the door with all of their might. She felt a strange icy chill cover her as she walked out of the door that slammed shut as soon as they made their way through. KK took in their surroundings. All snow and actually a surprising amount of plants for being literally underground. She felt the biting cold sting of wetness in the air and briefly wondered how they also had wind underground before waving it off, not actually caring to analyze such a thing. The whole place looked dingy and gray, as though no life survived it. Maybe that’s why Flowey had dubbed it ‘snow-hell’.

____________________

“Now children, before eating I want you to thank me for this food!” a cheery woman squealed with delight, as though this was her favorite part of the day.

Frisk looked down at her PB&J and red apple. Honestly, it didn’t seem hard to make, but they all begrudgingly thanked the woman in tandem.

“Thanks, Mrs. Todd” all of them spoke at once, fake happiness emanating off of the ones that had been in this house for a while, while Frisk’s voice was simply monotone.

“Now Annabelle, deary, you should be a little more enthusiastic. You should appreciate how good of a person I am for taking you in. I deserve your gratitude.”

Frisk hated this part. She had only been here a week, but the woman insisted that she sounded more enthusiastic every time. She really just didn’t want to eat what was in front of her to test the woman, but she was always beyond hungry when it came to dinner. This woman never made breakfast, her lunch was a joke (some sort of healthy fruit and veggie smoothie that she packed up in a couple thermoses for them at school), and they only got snacks on the weekend when she didn’t make them lunch at all. Frisk had lost a significant amount of weight at this woman’s hands and didn’t feel comfortable with it at all. She had considered stealing some food, stockpiling it for when she felt hungry, but the woman caretaker had locked all of the cupboards so that they were inaccessible to anyone but her.

Her husband was nice, but he was usually not home, so he didn’t realize what was going on. He worked between 50 and 60 hours each week just to pay the bills and have some extra money. His wife was mostly at home, but had a part time job at what she called a ‘restaurant’. Frisk hadn’t been fooled by her phrasing though. She had seen the dingy red polo in the wash before. The woman was working part time in fast food.

They also had a single child, Angelica, who was extremely kind and patient. She was usually the one spending time with her masculine parent when he was home, always treating him like he was fragile. In a sense, he was. He hated his marriage and his job, but only kept it all together because he loved his daughter. She was the only thing keeping the household together.

There were also two other foster children in the house, Trent and Grace.

Trent was a quiet, kind boy of fifteen who always acted appreciative of Mrs. Todd, but really didn’t enjoy her presence. He usually protected the younger children from any punishments that she gave, usually going without food.

Grace was only 6 and she was very enthusiastic, even at things she really shouldn’t have been enthusiastic about. Angelica had the flu? She would sound excited. Mr.Todd had extra over-time? She would cheer. Mrs.Todd demanded thanks for ‘making’ food? She cheered louder. Frisk had an inkling that maybe that was why she demanded it. Because she wanted to hear more cheering over her doing mediocre tasks that she very well should be doing anyway. She worked far less than her counterpart and was home most of the day, so why shouldn’t she be doing some household tasks? Then again, she usually was watching television or going shopping instead of helping anything.

So how had they even decided to get foster children? Mrs.Todd of course. She had a plan devised before Mr.Todd had even walked in the door the day they ‘decided’ to take in foster children. Mrs.Todd really only wanted more money to spend, but she had played it off as her and Angelica, especially Angelica, being lonely in the house by themselves most of the time. Mr.Todd had only begrudgingly agree because he loved Angelica.

So, here Frisk was, in a house with three other children, an overworked father, and an awful mother figure. To make things worse, the ‘mother’ was entirely unfaithful. On days when Mr.Todd had extra over-time, she would slink in with a ‘friend’ and make familiar noises in the master bedroom. Frisk just hoped that her husband would have the strength to divorce her soon. If he didn’t have to spend money on her, maybe he could even hire a nanny for Angelica. His wife was a money drain, after all.

After around 6 months of staying in such a depressing place, the foster-care office had noticed that she had lost an astounding amount of weight and was now far too malnourished for a child. She and the other two foster children were promptly shipped to the next place after that and Frisk was apathetic about it. She hadn’t liked the house and she probably wouldn’t like the next one. She couldn’t wait for the cycle to end. She just hoped that Angelica and her father would make it out of that woman’s grasp with their sanity intact as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! Yay!  
> Sorry, I know this is really slow and Frisk's backstory hasn't really picked up yet.
> 
> And sorry if Frisk's foster care experience doesn't seem genuine, I have not personally experienced it and so there will probably be inaccuracies.


	6. You can't stay here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flowey explains some things to Frisk and Frisk has to leave a semi-comfortable arrangement.

KK sat down in the snow, back against the door she just exited.

“Are we going to, ya know, go forward?” Flowey asked, confused by KK’s actions.

“I got no sleep last night. I also need some explanations.”

Flowey looked at her like she was insane. “In the freezing cold? You want explanations in the freezing cold.” KK nodded. “Unbelievable,” he mumbled, annoyed by her flippance.

“Let’s get this over quickly then.” Flowey nodded, knowing that pressing the woman did him no good. She seemed far too calculating to panic over something like the situation they were in. She didn’t panic when the giant goat-woman was attacking them with fire, so why would she panic now?

“What do you need to know?”

“Why the hell did everything turn black and colorless.”

“You were in a conflict.” KK glared at him as if that was the most obvious thing he could’ve said.

“Ugh, a monster conflict. When a monster conflict is initiated, some magical stuff happens.” She raised her eyebrows at the flower, unsatisfied with the explanation.

“Look, did you notice your soul come out or don’t you know about that too?” she just continued staring at him, waiting for explanations.

“The heart-looking thing? It was your soul. Ya know, soul? The very culmination of your being?”

“Those are real and not metaphorical? Interesting……” Flowey looked up at her in alarm. Humans didn’t know about souls?

“Yeah, they’re real! Do humans know nothing? Geez! So I’m guessing you don’t know about soul traits or stats or anything?”

“Nope”

“Stop acting so disinterested, this is important!”

She sighed. “So what’s gray mean?”

“What?”

“My ‘soul’ looked gray,” she said as though she didn’t believe him.

“I’m…..not sure.”

“Oh, I thought you knew a lot about souls.” He looked up at her, glaring at her in annoyance and frustration.

“Monster souls are all white because they’re made out of love and compassion. Human souls have colors that follow one of the soul traits. Gray is not one of the colors.”

“Red then? I think it turned red for a moment.”

“Red is determination.” She hummed at the information.

“So, you said something about stats?”

“Yeah, ATK,DEF,HP…..”

“Sounds like a video game.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Video games usually have stats like that for each character. HP is usually hit points, ATK is attack, and DEF is defense, right?”

“Partially. HP is hope.” She snorted a bit at that. Flowey ignored her and continued. “It basically tells you how long you can last against enemies. If you have more hope, you can hold your ground longer. ATK is attack and DEF is defense, but they are not just inherent values you have, they can be affected by items you are wearing or using like armor and weapons. Then, there’s EXP and LV….”

“Experience points and level?” she asked, less interested as he went on.

“No, execution points and LOVE”

“So, EXP increases when you kill others? And what the hell is LOVE? Like the gushy kind?”

“Yes for the exp question, but no LOVE is not gushy or sweet. It’s your level of violence and periodically increases when you hit certain EXP thresholds. When your LV increases, you also gain other benefits like increased HP, ATK, and DEF. However, you also become different. Some people’s personality becomes more warped and sadistic, while others simply become more uncaring and unaffected by the world around them.” she hummed again, interested in his explanation but also somewhat wary about the implications. Others could tell how many people someone killed based off numbers? And the numbers were apparently attached to the soul, which was a corporeal thing, and had the possibility of being seen by others?

She stared into the strange snowy wasteland that looked hardly inviting.

“Flowey, I’m going to sleep”

“Maybe we should more off to the side? What if someone comes?” he asked KK before realizing he could hear shallow, peaceful breathing. KK was already asleep, leaning against her gun. Flowey decided to keep watch while she was out. Maybe he could wake her if anyone came close to them. Soon, however, he found himself slipping into the sweet embrace of sleep as well, not noticing the figure in the distance.

____________________

“Annabelle, I have found you an amazing home!” the woman spoke, looking happily down at the small girl in her office. Frisk just looked up at her, feeling a bit of hope. Maybe this home would be better than some of the… other homes she had been to. “The people that are taking you in are very wealthy, so they will have no problem taking care of you!” she beamed. Frisk lightly smiled, fingers fidgeting with the edge of her sweater.

She was shipped off not long after in a sleek, black sedan with a driver. Frisk had never been in a car with a personal driver that wasn’t a taxi. She was hoping that if these people could afford such a vehicle and a driver, then maybe they would give her an actual bed. Maybe even with a fluffy mattress!

She arrived at a beautiful home - a mansion! How lucky!

The driver took her inside along with her one bag and she marvelled unabashedly at the house. The entire house had a light blue and white decor.

A woman came down the stairs. She looked very wealthy and beautiful, her attire painting a picture of a smart yet wifely woman. Her pale blue button up was modest, yet snug enough to reveal that she was in fact a woman. She wore a slightly puffy, white skirt that extended below her knees, some opaque stockings, and simple, white flats. Her hair was a light blonde and was perfectly straight, extending to nearly her waist. Her makeup was simple, but flattering. Despite how much Frisk liked her at first, everything changed when she met the woman’s eyes. Her eyes were a lovely light blue, but were more steely than any other eyes Frisk had ever seen before. She appeared strict without so much the slightest wrinkle in her face. The woman didn’t have to change her facial muscles to look cruel, her eyes said it all.

“Annabelle, was it? Get used to being called ‘Ann’ around here. It sounds much more elegant and refined than your full name. And we will have to get you new clothes. What you are wearing is absolutely dreadful. Maid!” she yelled, a black and white clad woman deftly sweeping into the room and standing at attention. “Take Ann to her room and take her measurements. I want at least three outfits completed by three PM today and twelve more completed in the following week.” The maid nodded, taking Frisk by the hand to do her task.

Frisk knew she should be happy but she definitely didn’t like being forced into the dress they had made. There were far too many frills and bows for her liking. It was like that every day. All of her outfits had to be sweet and completed with all matching accessories. She was Sarah’s doll after all. Sarah was the woman of the house, but Frisk almost never saw her husband, Stephen. When he was home, it was easy to see that the two’s marriage was loveless. Frisk had learned from some of the maids’ gossip that the marriage had been arranged. Sarah’s family had been wealthy and her husband was a famous, high-class business man. Apparently, Sarah’s husband didn’t even want to ‘complete’ the marriage by copulating with her and absolutely wouldn’t let her work. Her job was just to look pretty. And even though he treated her in such a way, Stephen was always having affairs and coming home intoxicated late at night.

After obtaining such information, Frisk realized that she was Sarah’s only play-thing that wasn’t her employee. Maybe Sarah had wanted the perfect child, but Stephen didn’t want to have it, especially with her? Either way, Frisk didn’t enjoy her time one bit. She had explained everything that had happened to her in the household, but her foster-care agent would just smile dreamily at the thought of being pampered, of having all her clothes made for her, and having the finest food. The agent seemed overjoyed every time Frisk visited, always complementing the child on the cuteness of her outfit or how she now looked very healthy.

Frisk often contemplated why she wasn’t satisfied. She was given clothing, a bed, healthy food, and had everything she would ever need. Maybe it was just the fact that she was forced to wear such feminine clothes every day? Or maybe it was just that the clothing was uncomfortable to say the least. Maybe her problem with the household was how nobody looked at her with love, but merely as a possession. At least she knew that she wasn’t being kept for the money, as these people definitely didn’t need it.

She also grew increasingly uncomfortable with Stephen’s behavior. When he was home, he was constantly flirting with, and sometimes touching, the maids. It didn’t matter if her and Sarah were present. He was shameless about such actions. Sarah always seemed upset, but never mentioned it and never produced a facial expression to show it. Frisk could just see the displeasure in her eyes. Then, Stephen would talk to Frisk. Frisk was uncomfortable when he did so and would always stay close to Sarah. He had a strange look in his eyes, as though he was hungrily waiting for something to happen and Frisk didn’t like the looks he gave her.

It had been some years since Frisk had entered the house when she started puberty. She was scared at first, asking the maids to bring Sarah. While she was well-educated in this household, she had never been told about puberty and its implications at all. Sarah listened to her explanation, then gave Frisk a puberty lesson and the talk by herself. She did so without pause and taught Frisk all about the necessary precautions needed as she continued her life. Then she kneeled in front of Frisk and gave her the first genuine expression that Frisk had ever seen on the woman. It was an expression of guilt.

“I’m sorry Ann, but…..I have to send you elsewhere. It is no longer safe for you here.” She gripped Frisk’s shoulders. “Forgive me,” she said, as she pulled out her cell phone and began dialing the foster-care agent’s number.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! But yeah, I'm slow at updating. :|  
> Thanks for all kudos/bookmarks/reads!


	7. How does this work again?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Papyrus finally make an appearance and a new player enters the guardianship game.

KK felt a present and was instantly awake, gun at the ready and pointed at the presence.

“Oh, impressive reflexes sweetheart,” said the voice. Her eyes were still clearing from the brief bout of sleep and she was still drowsy, but she was alert enough to know that the presence was dangerous.

“Who the hell are you,” she asked, though it sounded like less of a question and more of a threat.

“I’m your worst nightmare, human,” his voice chimed, sounding dark. KK’s eyes finally cleared of the fog of sleep. The first thing she saw was a skeleton that looked like he came out of hot topic eating… a hotdog? A look of confusion crossed her face. He was wearing a black hoodie with a furry hood, a red turtleneck, some black gym shorts with yellow stripes, red sneakers, and.. was that a collar? What the hell? He was strangely…pudgy for a skeleton. His face had some sort of permanent, sinister smile. His teeth were pointed, one of them gold. His bones also seemed to be covered in small nicks as though he fought a lot. KK scrunched her nose as she noticed that he had gotten mustard on his shirt. Disgusting.

“What are you, the edgy teen down the street who ate too many cheetos? How are you so fat for a skeleton?” she said, face full of genuine confusion, but her grip on the rifle not faltering.

He looked at her strangely, his demeanor falling at her lack of fear and her insult. “What the hell are cheetos?” he asked, quickly regaining his composure

“A pre-packaged, processed snack food that contain a variety of substances to simulate a cheese flavor covering a corn-based crunchy or puffy center,” she replied.

“Huh...well, we’re off topic here. I’m going to give it to ya straight. I already called my bro’ and when he gets here, he’s gonna kill ya’,” he drawled, leaning against a tree and eating another hot dog.

“Why didn’t you do it yourself? You had plenty of opportunity while I was asleep.”

“I ain’t gonna’ steal my bro’s glory. He’d get super pissed and it’s annoying when the boss is pissed.”

KK was now confused. His ‘bro’ was his ‘boss’? So, the brother that was coming was older? Would he also look like he hopped straight out of a mall filled only with hot topic, spencers, rue 21, and a cosplay store?

“SANS WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?” a voice yelled. KK could easily tell that the person...monster was a better word perhaps... was not trying to be subtle and obviously wasn’t scared. This other skeleton said he was going to kill her? Maybe she’d start with a warning shot like Toriel?

“O’er here boss!” the skeleton...Sans was it?...yelled back.

Then KK saw him. 

_Holy fuck that skeleton is tall._ she thought. Then, she brought back her earlier thought. His outfit really did seem like it would come out of the mall she had imagined earlier. He was wearing tight black pants with a belt, though they were so tight she didn’t see why he needed it at all. He had a black torn shirt with shoulder pads that rivaled those anime characters that KK had seen before. A red scarf, also anime-esque, was wrapped around his neck. His teeth were sharp, just like his brother’s teeth, and he had scars around his eye sockets. He was wearing red gloves and boots. His whole outfit screamed cosplay.

KK fired her warning shot without hesitation, but it only went through his scarf, leaving yet another tear. Damn, he was fast. He had already made it half way there and, being a skeleton, his arm was a very small target. 

“SANS, YOU HAVE DONE WELL IN WARNING ME ABOUT THE HUMAN. NOW JUST STAND BACK AND LET ME DO ALL THE WORK. IT’S GOOD YOU’VE BEEN LESS USELESS THAN USUAL TODAY.”

With that being said, the skeleton erupted into a sprint.

_And I thought that he was already sprinting…_ KK thought. Perhaps it was best to forget the warning shot. The way this skeleton was looking at her meant business. Not the money kind, but the killing kind.

Her face changed from one of wonder to one of complete focus, she braced the weapon against herself, and then she fired. Her bullet sailed straight through the air. Sans watched in boredom until the bullet hit its target.

Sans watched in horror as the other skeleton’s skull shattered into pieces, then turned into a gray powder.

“You...killed him,” he said with disbelief.

“Yeah, he seemed pretty intent on killing me and I’m not running on enough sleep to make any complex plans,” she said nonchalantly, not even looking at the other skeleton.

“You fucking brother killer!” he screamed with rage. KK lifted the rifle in record speed. However, it was not fast enough. She felt something dripping down her mid-section and with disbelief, looked down to see...a red bone? I went straight through her midriff and she coughed, feeling the oozing red liquid falling down her lips. She spared a glance upward only to see Sans holding out his hand, red light pouring from his right eye-socket and red light covering his hand. She then realized too late that not every monster was going to have fire magic like Toriel did. It had been a stupid, sleep-deprived assumption after all.

The last sight she saw was a worried flower trying to keep her awake by yelling and shaking her. She gave a weak laugh as she slowly drifted from existence, not regretting her decision to come down here at all. It had been surreal, seeing monsters. Dying as revenge for killing a loved one was a great way to go and so she went with a smile, happy that it was her decision that lead to her death and not someone else’s choice.

The next thing KK knew, she was in some black space and felt like she was floating. Man, death seemed…boring? Where was purgatory? Was the hell fire a lie? Booooorinnnng…..

It was at that moment that she heard the strange disembodied voice that she had heard before.

_You fucking died already? Weak sauce. Fucking weak sauce, man._

KK tried to float around in the space to see who had said the voice, but only found a strange console again. God damn, who was making this weird shit? The console had two choices - ‘Reset’ or ‘Continue’.

“Is this supposed to be a joke?”

_No, you fucking idiot. You want to reset your stupid-ass journey, you press reset. You wanna continue at the last place you actually felt something? You press continue. Stupid ass piece of shit, making me explain things, fucking fuck…_

The voice then mumbled off a string of insults until it grew silent again.

“Well, restarting would be worthless at this point, so I guess continue would be best.”

The voice was silent while she reached towards the glowing word ‘Continue’.

“Here goes nothing then,” she said, and the black void was suddenly gone, replaced by her scope aiming straight for the tall skeletons head, seconds before she took the shot.

“What the hell!?” the fat skeleton screeched.

_Exactly what I was thinking._ were the only thoughts she could form before she was face to face with a really fucking tall skeleton in some sort of cosplay-ass getup.

“PREPARE FOR YOUR DEATH PITIFUL HUMAN. PREPARE FOR YOUR DEATH FROM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS!”

____________________

Frisk sighed. Well, at least she was getting placed again. She hated intermissions at the group homes. Then again, she had met plenty of interesting people at such places. However, meeting new people was a steep price to pay for awful food, hard beds, and adults who generally didn’t care about the children. Overall, such places were a bad experience every time. Thus, Frisk was thankful to be leaving the place but also scared of the possibilities that lied ahead. The agent looked nervous. Frisk didn’t like that fact.

“So.. Annabelle.. the next place you are going to stay in is with a 27 year old woman. Her name is Clarice Woode and she’s single. She’s new to the program and I know nothing about her, but her profile is just... strange. She’s never been married or had kids and specifically requested an older child, preferably female. I just… usually don’t see cases like this and I’m a bit confused.”

Frisk scrunched up her nose at that. Such a case definitely did sound odd. A middle aged woman living alone and wanting to raise a pre-teen or teenage female? Frisk would definitely have to observe this woman.

They arrived at the door and knocked. They heard a crash inside with a few muffled words, then running, and suddenly the door was opened. A young looking woman was staring in the doorway. She was definitely overweight. Frisk assumed she weighed maybe around 200 pounds. However, her skin was smooth and her hair looked healthy. She had medium blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and some half-rimmed, simple glasses on. She was wearing a light yellow button down, but it was wrinkled, and a medium-blue pair of jeans. Her face was slightly flushed and her glasses were crooked, but that was probably just a result of what sounded like a stumble before she had opened the door. The woman quickly straightened her glasses, smoothed down her stray hairs, patted her shirt down a few times, and held out her hand to the agent.

“Hello, my name is Clarice. Are y-you the foster-care a-agent?” she looked stiff, as though she had rehearsed the question. Frisk raised an eyebrow at this. What a strange woman.

The agent took her hand and shook it firmly. “Yes I am. I’m here to drop off Annabelle.”

Clarice looked at Frisk “S-so, you must be Annabelle? Or do you prefer another name?” she held out her hand for Frisk to shake too.

“Whatever you want is fine,” Frisk replied curtly, taking the woman’s hand and shaking it lightly.

“I g-guess I’ll just stick to your full name s-since I-I don’t know you that w-well yet…” she trailed off. Frisk wasn’t opposed to the idea. She hated people getting too comfortable with her before getting to know them.

“Well then, may we come in? We’ll just get the paperwork together and then I’ll leave you to settle in!” she sounded cheery, but Frisk knew that she was still uncomfortable with the unusual situation and didn’t want to leave Frisk alone in such a situation.

“O-of course” Clarice held the door open for them. They noticed that she was wearing socks, so quickly took their shoes off so not to get the carpet dirty. Frisk trailed along, her backpack full of possessions the only thing in hand. The apartment was small but looked lived in. Frisk didn’t get the sense that Clarice cleaned very often, but it was obviously she had done so recently, presumably for this meeting.

“Do you guys want something to drink? I have… coffee, coke, mountain dew, ginger ale, um.. ramune, and water….” she trailed off, seemingly embarrassed by announcing the existence of whatever ramune was in her fridge.

The agent replied with a “No thank you. I can’t stay for long. I just thought it’d be better to quickly meet with you. You are new to the program after all and I don’t know much about you.”

Frisk just shrugged at the woman and dropped her bag on the floor. Clarice seemed to be a little nervous at her guests not wanting a drink, acting as though she had embarrassed herself for no reason. They all sat down.

“May I ask about your specifications, Clarice?” the agent quickly got to the point. “You said an older female would be better. Why is that?”

“Ah well… I live on my own and a boy might be….. ah… u-uncomfortable?” She pulled on her collar. Must be a nervous habit. “A-and I’m not really good with kids? I guess I just wanted someone to spend time with that wasn’t that childlike but would feel comfortable living here?” she sounded unsure of her answer, as though she was questioning whether it sounded strange. The agent sighed in relief. Frisk relaxed after that. It was strange, but through the years she had gone from hating the agent to placing her complete trust in the woman. Frisk had seen over the years how hard she had tried to get children into better homes, even if that meant, like her last house, being slightly uncomfortable. Frisk hated dresses, but she had seen how exceptional the last house had been for a foster child. It was quite astonishing that she had made it into such a place in the first place.

“Thank you Clarice, that will be all for now. I just wanted to confirm your reasoning.” She handed Clarice a paper. “Here is my schedule for Annabelle’s monthly meetings. These are mandatory, but can be rescheduled slightly if there is a large conflict. We try to meet with all of the children to keep track of them and make sure their needs are taken care of. I’m sure you understand.”

Clarice just nodded her head and stood up when the agent stood. She and the agent shook hands and that left just Frisk and Clarice, the elder of the two ringing her hands together while Frisk sat on the couch. Unsurprisingly, Clarice was the first that spoke.

“So…d-do you like anime?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup guys! Yeah, that chapter took a long time didn't it? Tell me if you guys think anyone's being OC! Oh yeah and if you guys notice any name mix-ups feel free to tell me. 'KK' is the name that should be used in the current time (the first part of the chapter), 'Frisk' should be the name used in the past, but 'Annabelle' should be in the past's conversation since Frisk hasn't told anyone that she goes by Frisk. Sometimes I don't notice that I typed the wrong one since they're all Frisk haha.....
> 
> Uhg, had to schedule my university classes for Fall but a lot of seats were filled because I don't get registrar e-mails (but my mom does? lol).....


	8. Calm before the storm?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KK makes a deal, Frisk is acclimated to her new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand... yeah, that took a while, didn't it? Sorry, my BF visited for two weeks and I have a project at work that made me stay longer than usual, so nothing ended up being written. Either way, thanks for all the Kudos/Comments/Bookmarks guys! :) Hope you enjoy this chapter.

_You already died 15 times? God, you’re such a pussy…._

KK was perplexed. She had figured out that she could die and come back to life, although she didn’t really have the drive to figure out how. Her main objective at this moment was figuring how to move on. Papyrus was relentless.

The first time she had frozen up, confused by the absurdity of the situation. Who wouldn’t be confused if they died and came back to life? In her confusion, he had taken the chance to run her through with a bone.

The second time she had tried to run, but quickly arrived at some strange gate with barbed wire, only to be killed by a bone that had been flying through the air. Papyrus hadn’t even bothered to follow her and took a strange demented joy in aiming at her from a distance.

A couple of times she had tried to fight him without killing him, but he always got too close far too quickly for her rifle or bayonet to be useful.

About three times, she had killed Papyrus by accident and Sans had immediately killed her.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something, strange disembodied voice…..”

_Chara_

“What?”

_It’s my name dumb-shit. Remember it_

“Huh. Alright then. Still feel like I’m forgetting something though…”

_What about that fucking knife strapped to your leg?_

KK looked down.

“Now I feel like an idiot…”

_But really, you’ll probably die again. What are you trying to accomplish?_

“I need to find a way so that I don’t kill Papyrus and that Sans doesn’t kill me. That seems to be the only way to continue. There’s no way to run and I can’t use my rifle or bayonet to fight.”

_What if the knife doesn’t work?_

“I’ll try again.”

_You could kill them both._

“There’s no reason for it though. If I can die over and over, I don’t really need to kill to survive, do I?”

_No, but it could be fun._

“Trust me, killing isn’t fun. There are more options than just the A or B options you seem to be imposing on me. Die, don’t die. Kill, don’t kill. Be a ‘pussy’ or don’t be one…”

_I just think there are only so many ways this could go, that’s all._

“That’s a child’s reasoning.” Chara huffed. “The universe has infinite possibilities. Why don’t you try testing them some time? Not every possibility will come to you immediately and not every possibility is one that you’d like to try, but there are so many different ones that you just have to keep searching, right?”

_That sounds far too optimistic, but you are the one in control so whatever…_

“Yeah, I am. Which is why I’m going to try the knife method.”

_How is it going to be any different?_

“What if I wound Papyrus enough to temporarily get away? Or maybe I could hurt him enough so that Sans and I can talk it out?”

_How will that fat skeleton asshole help you?_

“He appears to remember everything that happened. Through his actions, he has indicated more than once that he remembers. It’s especially evident when I accidentally kill Papyrus. Instead of getting all crazy pissed like the first time it happened, he just kills me with a scowl, knowing that his brother will be back soon.”

_.....interesting…._

“That’s what I thought. That’s why I intend to use this power as an opportunity to talk to him. If I wound Papyrus enough so that he can do me no harm and then talk to Sans, I might be able to work this out. As an added precaution, I can always threaten to kill his brother again.”

Chara remained silent. KK quickly pressed the continue button in order to start from the same point.

The world materialized around her and she dropped the rifle in the snow. Quickly she took up the knife sheathed to her thigh and jumped out of the way of Papyrus’s bone weapon. Without pausing, she sliced upward on the tall skeleton’s rib cage. He yelled in pain and anger, but before he could strike back she was already behind him, completely focused. She had to be careful not to kill the skeleton, but also needed to keep moving in a way he might not predict so that his bones wouldn’t slice through her. She quickly sliced his rib-cage from the back, then went for the back of his legs. He merely howled in anger and attempted to get to KK.

KK had thought about it before briefly, but now she realized that her size was the best advantage she had. The tall skeleton would have more of a problem dealing with a smaller target like herself. She decided to keep staying behind him as he struggled to turn around and face her head on. She kept slicing his legs, arms, and ribs until he was on the ground and leaking some strange red-orange substance. Magic perhaps? Not that KK would know. 

To prevent an attack from his brother, she held him up with a knife… well, it couldn’t be at his throat could it? Slicing that might not kill him. He obviously wasn’t going to bleed out or anything. So, she ended up holding it out from his rib cage, poised to stab in the center.

“I don’t see why you keep trying. Either my bro is going to kill you or I’m gonna kill as revenge for killing my bro. Don’t see why you keep doing this to yourself,” Sans’s voice growled from behind the tree. She could tell that he was also getting tired.

Papyrus just looked strangely up at Sans, dazed from the fighting and confused at what his brother was saying.

“Decided not to kill him this time. The 15 other times kind of made me understand his attacks and movements though. He likes fighting face-to-face and can easily hit a target that is far away or generally moving non-sporadically. I also couldn’t use my rifle at this range. He was too close.”

Sans had looked up in curiosity when she had stated that she… hadn’t killed his brother? He was confused by that, but he was also angry that a human was making his brother suffer as his magic leaked from his rib cage. His brother was usually stronger than that, but maybe he was underestimating his opponent. He did that often because of his large ego. And he also had only encountered a few humans before. All of them had pretty small and weak so maybe he was expecting the same this time around.

“Why the hell would you do that?” he growled, confused by her methods.

“Wanted to talk.”

“Bout’ what you filthy human?”

“Look, we’re gonna keep going through this unless there’s a change. The way I see it, your brother won’t change his pattern because he doesn’t remember. I don’t have that many options and, unless you want me to try over and over, you probably are going to want to help me.”

“Why the hell don’t you just die though? Would make this a hell of a lot easier ya know?”

“I’m too determined to live for that,” she said, no joking or fun and games involved in her answer. She was ... ‘dead’ serious. Heh….

“What’re you suggesting?”

“First, tell me what the point in killing me is.”

“Ugh, fine. Let's make this quick though, my bro is suffering over there. Did anyone tell ya’ why we’re all down here?”

“There’s some sort of rumor above ground that long ago some creatures were trapped in here. So.. there has to be some sort of barrier or blockage that’s keeping you from leaving?”

“Yeah a fucking magical barrier.”

“Huh. I don’t really have knowledge of magic things. Humans don’t really have that and actually classify magic as sleight of hand or fiction nowadays.”

“Wait, you all don’t think it’s real any more? What the hell?”

“Yeah, the barrier thing apparently happened like a thousand years ago according to local legend. Humans live to be like… a hundred. Tops. And that’s in recent times. Lots of generations have passed since then and information gets a bit convoluted without proper records in that amount of time.”

“Only a hundred years? How the fuck did you guys win the war?”

“Ah, so the barrier was a result of a war?”

“You didn’t even know that? How the fuck are humans still alive if they’re that stupid?” he growled in frustration.

“We breed…a lot,” she shuddered, Sans pretending he didn’t notice. He coughed, slightly uncomfortable.

“But anyway, yeah so there’s this barrier, right? We can break it with seven human souls. We managed to snag about three.”

“Ah, there’s your answer right there,” she seemed unfazed by the information.

“Wait, you're not gonna comment that we killed a bunch of humans to get their souls?”

“No? Three humans isn’t even that many. Either way, as I was saying, I’ve found the answer to our predicament.”

He grunted, waiting for her shit answer.

“Since you only have three souls, what need is there to kill me now?”

He was going to refute her, but stopped mid-thought. What...was the point of killing her now? She could be of some use. They could kill her any time. Maybe they should get some use out of her first.

“So...like a slave? Or a pet?”

“I guess. I have some stipulations though.”

“Spill em’.”

“I’m not a sex slave. I will not be used as one. No debate.”

“I guess that’s alright. Not like I was thinkin’ of that anyway. Yer not really my type anyway. Anything else?”

“I don’t want to kill.” His eye-lights went out. That one was gonna be hard.

“That’s gonna be difficult, doll.”

“I will wound and maim though.” His eye-lights quickly returned. Well, it wasn’t as bad as he thought.

“Deal.”

“Eh? So easily,” her face only gave away slight surprise.

“Yeah, thought you were one of those annoying ‘no violence’ chicks. Had one of those come through the door once. Killed her on the spot. Didn’t want to deal with that shit. Then again, you did kill my bro the first time and I’m looking at him all messed up, but some people do that shit out of sheer survival instincts and still not want to hurt anyone later because they’re pussies.”

“Makes sense. This doesn’t seem like the type of place for that attitude. I just don’t see the point in killing down here. Since I theoretically have infinite lives it seems kind of...unfair? There’s no purpose to it.”

He shook his head, understanding. 

“But you’re still fine with maiming people?”

She gave a sinister smile. “Sometimes, all that works is a bit of...physical persuasion.”

____________________

Frisk was thoroughly enjoying her new life. She and Clarice had established a schedule. Frisk, of course, went to school every day. Clarice had some sort of work at home job, but would occasionally have people over for work or go out to meet others for her mystery job. Frisk didn’t really mind it, such a thing only required that she help clean up before others came over or maybe helped iron some of Clarice’s nicer clothes.

After school, Frisk would do her homework. Clarice would help where she could. Every other Tuesday, they would get pizza and watch anime (unless Frisk had a test or Clarice was going out of course). Fridays were almost exclusively days where they had ramen for dinner. Every other weekend, they both agreed to go out and do an activity. They had done paintball once or twice and had gone to arcades, watched movies, and gone shopping. Both had gone skating once, but they soon realized that they were both really bad at it and eventually gave up and went home. 

The two were more like sibling than anything else. They would play online games together too. Clarice had eventually, and shyly, told Frisk that she often liked being called her gamer tag, Cleffa, because she had described her full name as ‘old lady-ish’. Frisk had agreed to call her Cleffa and, in exchange, told her to call Frisk ‘Felix’ instead of Annabelle. Frisk had been pleased to be called something more gender-neutral, but hadn’t been ready to share the name her parents called her with anyone. It felt.. special and reserved for when someone had gained her full trust. Even though she liked Cleffa, she still didn’t fully trust her.

As for financials, Cleffa took a portion of the money so they could pay for rent, groceries, and their outings. Otherwise, she helped Frisk set up a savings account so that she could use the money in the future for whatever she deemed necessary. Frisk had been very appreciative of this, as other houses she had spent time in had made no such efforts at aiding her.

It had only taken one month for Cleffa to present Frisk with her very own cellphone.

“Felix,” she started off with Frisk’s nickname, per usual.

“Yeah Cleffa?” Frisk questioned, not looking away from the Inuyasha re-run or putting down her bag of twizzlers.

“I thought it was finally time you had a cell phone.”

Frisk dropped her twizzler and immediately snapped her head around. Nobody had ever been kind enough to give her a cell phone before, even when they had taken all of her money. Cleffa gingerly came over to the girl. It was a nice smartphone, but wasn’t too large. It was the model Frisk had been eyeing at the store when they walked by it. She was mystified that Cleffa even knew which model she wanted.

“I….. don’t know what to say,” Cleffa handed her the phone. “Thank you Cleffa.” Frisk held the phone close, as though it was the most precious gift she had ever received.

“I added my number in there and made a couple of…. modifications. Just minor ones. There are some… stipulations to owning it though.

Frisk looked up at her confused.

“Go to the app screen.” She waited for Frisk to do so. “See this app?”

Frisk tilted her head. “SwiftWipe?”

“Yeah, that one. It’s very important that you know how to use that.”

Frisk looked confused, but still waited for instructions anyway.

“In order to use it, you need to press a precise sequence of buttons. I haven’t turned on the app yet, so I’ll show you what to do and I need you to remember it please.” Frisk nodded.

“Press the volume up button twice, then the volume down button twice, turn the screen off, press the volume down once again, turn the screen on and off twice, then apply your finger to the print scanner. It’s important you start the sequence when the screen is on and complete the sequence within thirty seconds. I need you to try turning the app on.”

Frisk had her repeat the sequence once or twice, then turned on the app successfully. It ran, turning her phone screen into a terminal, flashing a success screen, and then her phone looked like normal again. Frisk noticed that all traces of the app on the main and apps screens were now gone.

“Listen Frisk, I need you to understand this. If you ever see police cars outside of the apartment and I don’t text you the safe-phrase ‘two monkeys dancing with plates and eating cheese at an anime convention while rick astley plays mysteriously in the background’, I want you to perform the same sequence.”

“That phrase is highly specific.”

“That’s really the point.”

“So… what will the app do?”

“It will erase all of your data and add dummy data. It will also trigger an alert on my phone if I’m not home. If I’m out, I can trigger a remote wipe of everything on my computer remotely from my phone. If I’m in the house, it will set a phone wipe timer that only my fingerprint can stop. If you do it and it’s a false alarm, don’t worry. I have our phones backing up to my server periodically in case.”

“And… the police?”

“I… don’t want to talk about it just yet…” she trailed off, quickly ducking into her office. Frisk just contemplated what Cleffa had just told her. The woman had set up an elaborate way for Frisk to wipe not only her own phone but Cleffa phone as well. And Cleffa trusted her enough to not screw everything up. It was surprising, but it warmed Frisk’s heart. Her caretaker actually trusted her with important tasks. Frisk wondered if Cleffa was maybe the perfect foster-guardian, but was still wary about the ‘police’ part of her explanation.


	9. Ups & Downs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KK tries to bargain with the Great and Terrible Papyrus.  
> Frisk learns some secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to start by thanking you guys for all of the hits/comments/kudos.
> 
> Every time I get a comment/kudos notification it brings a smile to my face! :) So thanks guys.
> 
> Also, sorry for the late post. Was having some problems with writing UF Papyrus. Hopefully he's not too OOC. I feel like Sans is already pretty OOC is though. :<

_He killed you again?_

“Yeah, he wasn’t about to let his brother be humiliated or in pain. He still seemed to be fine with making a deal. Now all he has to do is convince his brother.”

 _Wonder how many times you’ll be back here before he manages to do that!_ Chara giggled, but the girl somehow even made giggling sound menacing.

“Hopefully, none,” KK said bitterly, pressing the ‘Continue’ button.

The blackness faded into the view through her scope and she prepared to dodge out of the way before Sans slightly stepped forward.

“boss, so I was talking to the human….”

Papyrus just scoffed “THERE WAS NO NEED FOR THAT SANS. WE ARE JUST GOING TO KILL THEM AND COLLECT THEIR SOUL!” Sans was sweating, obviously not wanting to go through these couple of minutes more times than he already had.

“but boss, they had an interesting idea,” he said, trying not to upset the taller skeleton. Papyrus just sighed.

“WELL, YOU’VE ALREADY RUINED MY DRAMATIC ENTRANCE, SO SAY WHAT YOU WILL. AND BE QUICK ABOUT IT, YOU WORTHLESS IDIOT!”

“well, they were wondering why you had to kill em’ now…”

“BECAUSE WE NEED THE SOULS YOU INSOLENT FOOL!”

“yeah, I know boss, but since we don’t have enough human souls even if you kill em’, this one was wondering why ya’ had ta’ kill it at this exact moment.”

“WHY SHOULDN’T I KILL THEM THOUGH?” Papyrus questioned, unamused.

“maybe they could be our slave?”

“NONSENSE, SLAVERY IS LAZY! JUST THE KIND OF PROPOSITION I’D EXPECT FROM MY LAZY BROTHER!”

“how it it lazy boss? we could definitely use a slave…” he looked at her wolfishly, imagining all of the tasks he could make KK do.

“SANS, SLAVERY IS THE EPITOME OF LAZINESS! IT IS MAKING SOMEONE ELSE DO WHAT I COULD VERY WELL DO MYSELF! AND THERE’D BE AN EXTRA MOUTH TO FEED. IF SOMEONE ELSE KILLED THEM, I’D BE DISHONORED AS THEY WOULD BE MY PROPERTY. THERE ARE TOO MANY DOWNSIDES TO YOUR IDIOTIC PROPOSITION BROTHER. NOW, IF YOU EXCUSE ME, I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, WOULD LIKE TO KILL THIS HUMAN!” Papyrus shoved his way around Sans, coming straight for KK. She decided to speak up with another idea.

“HUMAN, I WILL GRANT YOU SOME LAST WORDS BEFORE YOU DIE. YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS. SPEAK IF YOU WISH!”

“Before you kill me. I do have another proposition,” she looked at him straight in the eye, then continued. “What if I just rented from you? Provided that I can get a...reasonable job.” At this point, KK reasoned that there was no reason not to try such an approach.

Papyrus paused at this one. Well, it would definitely be beneficial. The human would be living close to him and he would gain from the exchange. However, what would stop other monsters from trying to kill her? And where would she get a job?

“I DO FIND YOUR OFFER QUITE...INTERESTING.”

She looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. There was no way that he would accept it that easily.

“HOWEVER!” he started again, “YOU WILL NEED TO FIND A JOB IN A TIMELY MANNER! YOUR RENT WILL BE DUE WHEN I SAY IT IS AND EVEN ONE MISSED PAYMENT WILL LEAD YOU STRAIGHT TO DEATH. OUR STORAGE SHED IS CURRENTLY RELATIVELY UNUSED. IF YOU ALTER IT WITH YOUR OWN MONEY, I MUST APPROVE ALL ALTERATIONS! ALSO, NONE OF OUR ITEMS IN THE SHED SHOULD GO MISSING! ALL MUST REMAIN IN OUR CUSTODY! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”

“Yes, sir!” KK replied, emotionless yet obediently.

“I GO BY BOSS”

“Yes, boss!”

“I DO HAVE ANOTHER CONDITION FOR YOUR STAY THOUGH.”

KK remained calm, hoping that the condition was as reasonable as the others.

“YOU MUST MAKE YOUR WAY TO ASGORE, OUR KING, AND CONVINCE HIM THAT THERE IS NO REASON TO KILL YOU CURRENTLY. I DO NOT CARE HOW YOU DO IT, BUT YOU MUST MAKE YOUR WAY TO HIM WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME. SANS OR I WILL ESCORT YOU ALONG THE WAY SO THAT IF YOU DIE, WE CAN COLLECT YOUR SOUL, BUT MAKE NOTE HUMAN - NEITHER OF US WILL HELP YOU. WE DON’T CARE IF YOU LIVE OR DIE. WE ONLY CARE ABOUT THE GLORY THAT COMES WITH BRINGING ANOTHER SOUL TO BREAK THE BARRIER SO DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF BELIEVING THAT WE CARE.”

That was nothing KK hadn’t heard before, so she immediately agreed. “Noted. So, we have a deal Pa-” she caught herself, “-boss?” Papyrus squinted his eye-sockets at her, then looked at Sans.

“IT LEARNS BETTER THAN YOU SANS.”

____________________

Frisk loved her time at Cleffa’s house. Frisk’s agent had decreased their meetings over time, partially due to the way that Frisk never had any problems with her new living arrangements and had been smiling more often. Frisk had been doing well in school and Cleffa had even volunteered to teach Frisk some basic programming. Frisk had taken her up on the offer and had learned some basics, but they hadn’t gone much farther than that. Frisk had made a few acquaintances at school - acquaintance was a good word because they never spent time together outside of school, but acted like friends within the establishment. After all, who needed friends outside of school when Frisk had Cleffa? The two were like inseparable siblings and they both enjoyed every minute of their time together.

At some point, Cleffa was comfortable enough to let Frisk stay in the apartment when her clients came over. The clients would sometimes enquire about the Frisk and whether she was ‘safe’ to have over, but Cleffa just waved them off, informing them that the two were like siblings and would never betray one another like that. After a while, clients had learned to expect the young woman to be sitting on the couch doing homework or watching TV and eventually stopped questioning Cleffa.

It was one of those days - after a client had left - when Cleffa decided to fianally allowed Frisk to see the one place she had never been allowed to go in - Cleffa’s office.

“Felix?” Frisk turned away from her math homework to find Cleffa wringing her hands in nervousness.

“Yes?”

“I want to...show you something.” Frisk rose from her seat, glad to take a break from her homework and happy to spend time with the guardian that she admired. “Follow me.” Frisk obediently followed, surprised when the woman led her straight to her office.

“I...want you to know what I do for a living, Felix. I know you’ve always wondered. I’m glad that you have kept your curiosity at bay this long.” Cleffa smiled warmly. “I want you to know more about me and I think that this is the best way.” She opened the door.

Inside was file cabinets, a computer, some...were those server racks?...a strange printer, some other printing and scanning equipment, and a photo area. She noticed that the room was kept extremely cold. She thought that it must’ve been because of the servers.

“What is all of this Cleffa?”

“You want to take a closer look?”

“Sure.” Frisk walked into the room, rubbing her arms to try to keep the goosebumps at bay.

“Here is my photo area,” Cleffa started, pointing to the corner of the office. “And here is my ID printer,” she pointed to the strange machine. “These here, these are my servers,” she pointed to the racks.

“So…you make IDs? Didn’t think you needed this many servers for that…” Frisk commented, having learned about servers from Cleffa herself.

“Oh, only one of them is for that. Also...don’t tell anyone about the IDs.”

“Oh?” Frisk questioned, wondering why it mattered so much.

“They’re illegal.” 

Frisk paused in her tracks. “..illegal?”

“Yeah, I make fake IDs and identities. For..uh..criminals,” she smiled sheepishly. “I also make...complex hacking programs. Also for..uh, criminals”

“Wait, really? That’s what that app was about, wasn’t it?”

She laughed nervously, wringing her hands even tighter.

“...yeah. If I ever get found out, we can’t just give them more incriminating evidence can we?”

“No, I guess not. Why are you telling me all of this?” Frisk questioned.

“Because, Felix, I trust you. And if I want to keep on living with you, you need to know my secrets. You need to know my job, why all those clients are coming here, and why you have to be somewhat secretive with my schedule and information.” 

“You don’t have to answer this, but...what did you use the hacking programs for?” Frisk’s face lit up with curiosity instead of disgust, boosting Cleffa’s mood ten-fold. Then, she had jumped right into some lengthy explanations about bank security and vault codes.

It was the week after Cleffa had revealed the news and Frisk’s heart felt like it had dropped down into her throat. There were police in the parking lot of the building. Frisk, trying not to panic, quickly inserted the sequence into her phone and continued onward, hoping against hope that the police were not there for Cleffa.

She walked up the stairs two at a time, not caring how her lungs burned at the exertion. She had to know! Was her guardian okay? She began to sprint down the hallway on her floor, hoping against hope that everything was alright. It took her seconds to reach the door. It took all of her effort to open the door, but once she had gained her breath, she finally decided to rip off the hypothetical band-aid and swing the door open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't apologize for the ending.


	10. One door opens, another door closes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New homes, old homes, and difficulties all around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooo.... it's been a while. Sorry, having some of that good old writers block and I'm not really liking how I'm writing Sans/Papyrus. Not much is going on in the present.... I hope that changes soon, but at least a lot of stuff is happening in the past?
> 
> Also realized I left off on a cliffhanger for a long time. I feel very evil. >:}

The trip from the door had been mostly silent apart from the angry march of Papyrus’s boots on the snow that made a slight crunching sound as the skeleton walked. Sans, despite how chubby he looked for a skeleton, was eerily silent. Occasionally, KK would look back at him only to find him staring at her back threateningly, silently reminding her of what would happen if she chose to harm his brother again. 

After going through the snow, the trio happened upon a wooden stand. it looked like it wasn’t well taken care of - one of the planks was falling down and there were strange yellow stains all over the counter. When Sans caught her staring, all she heard from his was “That’s my sentry post, kid. Don’t worry about it.” At that, they kept walking and KK’s curiosity was sated. Originally she thought it was some sort of hotdog stand and wondered why it was out here. Such a low traffic area was a silly place for a hotdog stand after all. It would have been rather suspicious. 

Eventually, the group arrived at a small town. She assumed this ‘Snowdin’ place had seen better days, judging from the heavily graffitied on ‘Welcome’ before the town’s name on the sign. The sign now sporting a red and black ‘fuck you’ lovingly painted on the sign. Lovingly was a strange word to use, for sure, but why else would someone spend the time to paint it on the sign if they didn’t enjoy the phrase?

They passed a couple of shops and plenty of townspeople. She now understood why the skeleton brothers dressed why they did. Positively everyone down here looked like they walked straight out of some sort of hot topic fashion show. Not that KK hated the look - it was pretty funny to see so many people in edgy clothing - but she didn’t like the feeling of being around so many people that thought in such similar ways. Usually, there were variation in styles, thoughts, ideals, etc. in communities. However, this place looked like everyone would be entirely willing to kill her in a second. All of the citizens seemed to glare at her, and she just returned all of their looks with her lifeless, static gaze, all the while hoisting her rifle on her shoulder.

Papyrus paused at a house. The house was, strangely, one of the nicest buildings in the area so far. KK had assumed that their house would look like the rest of the buildings - somewhat dilapidated, covered in graffiti, and having some strange powder at the base that definitely wasn’t snow. While their house didn’t have the dilapidated look or the graffiti, it still had the strange powdery looking substance.

“HUMAN, THIS IS OUR HOME. YOU WILL BE STAYING IN THE SHED,” he pointed to the right “OVER THERE. DO NOT SET FOOD INSIDE OUR HOUSE UNLESS INVITED. SANS!” The smaller skeleton looked up at his brother. “SHOW THE HUMAN THEIR LIVING SPACES AND MAKE SURE THEY DON’T DO ANYTHING.. SUSPICIOUS.” he squinted his eye sockets at her while she contemplated how their bones could be malleable.

Sans ushered her over to the run-down looking shack next to the house. She shrugged at it. She’d slept in worse so such a living arrangement was of no consequence. All she knew was that she wouldn’t last very long outside with the snowfall and the shack was her best bet. She opened the door and her sight was filled with an array of instruments - the torturing kind - all covered with blood. She was more concerned over the fact that they needed such a quantity rather than the dried blood on the tools.

Sans was confused over KK eyeing all of the instruments like museum pieces rather than the bloody tools they were.

“What’s this one for?” she pointed to some contraption with clamps and tough looking screws.

“Knee-cap screw, but they can be used for inflicting damage on just about any appendage.”

“Huh.”

“Kiddo, ya’ don’t seem to be that concerned with what ya’ looking at.”

“Torture instruments? They’re no big deal. Psychological torture tends to work the best though….” she hummed as the looked at the nail bat.

“I’ll keep that in mind, kid.”

“Hmm… why do you keep calling me kid?”

“Cause’ of the stripes.”

“Stripes? On my sweater?” she questioned, a bit unsure of the implications of said pattern.

“Yeah. Kids down here wear stripes. You’re not a kid?” Sans replied, uninterested in her beyond the need to gather information.

“Nah, humans are considered an ‘adult’ at 18. I’m already 23.”

“Not really sure how that translates to monster ‘age’. We know how ya’ measure time though. Sometimes monsters stay kids well past your age. We use the stripes ta’ know. It’s like you’re deceiving people.”

“Well, I really don’t want to discard my sweater, especially with how cold it is around here. And maybe it’s better if they think I’m a child. Just a second more of hesitation benefits me.”

“Well, if that’s the way ya’ thinking, then maybe you’ll be fine down here after all. I’ll leave ya’ to your new home ta’... ‘redecorate’ or whatever you humans do.” and with that he disappeared into thin air.

The only thing KK could think as she watched him leave was _that’s a useful trick_.

______________________

She opened the door..only to see Cleffa sitting on the couch watching Inuyasha.

Frisk collapsed to her knees in relief.

“Did you see the police outside?” she asked Cleffa, breathless from running.

“Yeah. I noticed a while ago. I was guessing that you didn’t get my text because you tripped the wipe sequence. Don’t worry I cancelled it.”

“I was so worried.” Frisk said, voice shaky, adrenaline trying to leave her body.

“I checked and it was the couple two floors below us, in 3C? There was a domestic abuse call. Apparently the man’s wife almost beat him to death. There had been calls before, but usually the police just ignore it because they don’t think a man could be pummeled on by his wife. Judging from his condition, it’s unlikely that he’ll be coming back to this apartment complex.”

Frisk just breathed out in relief - so it _wasn’t_ the police coming for Cleffa. She was not prepared to have to move in with someone else and lose the person who she thought of as a sibling to prison.

Cleffa was helping Frisk up when Frisk heard in a very quiet voice “I’m… sorry.”

“Hmm?”

Cleffa spoke a bit louder, but was no more confident. “Look, Felix, I’m really sorry that I have a job that worries you. I understand if you want to live with someone else…”

“No!” Cleffa was startled by her outburst. The next thing Cleffa knew, the sweaty, tired teenager in front of her was hugging her and trying not to cry in the front of her shirt. “Please don’t leave me! You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in years!” Frisk cried, wettening the front of Cleffa’s shirt with sweat and tears. Cleffa was surprised at first, but slowly her arms encircled Frisk’s small body and she gave off a warm smile, light tears threatening to fall.

She hugged the teen tighter. “Me too, Felix. Me too.”

___

Many months had passed since the police incident. Frisk was doing well in school, and Cleffa had gotten a good number of jobs. Frisk was well into her last month of school vacation and the days were extremely hot and humid. She couldn’t wait to get home and sit in their air conditioned apartment. She was carrying two bags of the essentials - frozen (well, mostly frozen at this point) chicken breast, some rudimentary vegetables, and, of course, ramen noodles. She had also splurged a bit and had gotten some materials for peanut butter and jelly, one of her favorites.

As she walked toward home, she noticed the convenience store on the side of the road and though _’Maybe Cleffa would like some ice cream?’_. Frisk dug a crumpled five from her pocket and ducked into the store. She picked Cleffa up a matcha ice cream cone (it had been quite the ordeal for them when they had found one in a convenience store near them and Cleffa had been very enthusiastic to eat it the first time and every time after) and grabbed herself an orange push pop.

After paying, she started eating the treat right away, relieved to be able to cool off somewhat in the heat. Lately, Frisk had been considering telling Cleffa the name her parents called her. Frisk really trusted her and if things kept going as they were, she wa ready to fully put her trust in the woman who she considered family at this point. She was ready to settle down with someone fully and never leave again until adulthood beckoned her to go somewhere else.

However, as she approached the apartment building, she noticed flashing lights once more. Being cautious, she set off the sequence in her phone. At this point, there had been other strange incidents at their apartment that had been false alarms for them, but Frisk was still cautious. A girl in 7A had been raped once, an elderly man in 12D had been murdered for inheritance (it had been made to look like an accident), and there had been a theft in 2B. The man from 3C hadn’t returned, but Frisk heard that he had recently been released from the hospital. Maybe he had come back, only to be beaten again? However, that was a lot of police cars….

She slowly made her way up, coming up with possibly scenarios. The orange push-pop was long gone and she was beginning to sweat profusely again. When she got to her floor, she was sweating from both the heat and her nerves. What if they had found Cleffa out? The last client she had brought in had been rather… nervous. Frisk didn’t trust him, but she had left to go to the library that day before he left, so she didn’t see him afterward and it might’ve been his first time in such a deal. However, she recalled that Cleffa seemed a bit nervous when she had gotten back. At this point, she was almost shaking.

She exited the elevator, only to see that the door was open on her apartment and there were many voices in there. Maybe she was watching a dubbed anime and had gone in the hall to check something? No, no, no, she hated dubbed anime. Always subbed, always subbed. Frisk idled toward the door slowly and looked inside. There were policemen everywhere. They had Cleffa cuffed on the couch. Frisk just dropped the bag. A policeman turned toward her “Are you Annabelle?” Frisk just remained silent. She didn’t cry, she just stared emotionlessly forward. “I assume that’s a yes. I need you to pack your things. You’re going to have to be moved to somewhere else. This woman is a criminal and she’s getting taken in.”

Cleffa looked at Frisk, her face guilt stricken, tear tracks falling down her face.

“I….. I’m sorry Felix. I really am. I wish you could’ve been here until you were an adult. I wish we could’ve done more, but this… this is it. If you could visit me, I’d appreciate it.” Cleffa looked ready to cry again as Frisk nodded quickly, then jogged to her room. What to pack? A few clothes, some photos, her phone…no, wait, the police man in the room was grabbing that. “Sorry, evidence. We know she tampered with it. You can’t keep it.” Frisk sighed. Well, there goes all her happiness. She just stared blankly as they lead her out of her room.

“Can I… say goodbye?”

The police officer looked down at her face, tears being held back, her hands gripping the front of her shirt. He smiled a warm, pitying smile. “Sure.”

Frisk walked up to the now standing Cleffa. Cleffa just looked at her, expecting the worst until Frisk full-frontal hugged the woman, sobbing into her shirt. “I… I don’t want to live with anyone else. You were the only person who wasn’t horrible to me! You treated my like a person. I… I love you, onee-san!”

Cleffa placed her head on Frisk’s as she stared into the distance, as her cuffs prevented much else. “I love you too, Felix. And I wish I was a better person for my kawaii imouto.”

A few minutes passed before the police lead Cleffa away to the police cars and another officer led Frisk away to a black sedan with a familiar face in the driver’s seat - her foster care case worker. The case worker looked sad to be there and she frowned even deeper upon seeing Frisk’s tear lined, tired face. At this point, both of them were tired. Frisk was tired of being passed around and the case worker was tired of seeing her unhappy.

Frisk got into the passenger seat, the police officer gave a few words to the case worker, and they drove to the woman’s office, not a word said between the two the entire time.


	11. New Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New job, new home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dammmnnn this took forever. Welp, at least I warned people about my shitty lack-of-an-upload schedule at the beginning. 
> 
> Like every other author who takes breaks, life happens I guess :<

KK’s morning was cold. it was freezing in the small shack. There were no blankets and only a strange dog bed with blood stains in the corner. not the most pleasant place to sleep, so she had chosen the floor over such a ‘bed’. However, the floor was extremely cold and she woke up sore. So, needless to say, she was crankier than usual.

“So, what’s on today’s schedule, human?” Sans said, breaking her morning routine by startling her while she was attempting to untangle her messy mop of hair.

His query was met with whatever was on the wall next to her posed in some threatening position without any hesitation. His magic flared with her sudden attack stance, one of his eye sockets going out and the other filled with a blazing red glow. As soon as KK saw that the intruder was the shorter skeleton, she lowered her defensive stance into a completely relaxed one and put the weapon - a rusty scythe - back on the wall of instruments that KK had her own assumptions on the uses of.

‘Well, first I have to see who the hell is hiring in this icy wasteland. I need to invest in blankets and a bed as soon as possible.”

‘Well, ta’ be honest, I’m not sure who is hiring either. But I guess you should probably look into the businesses around. Not that I expect them ta’ hire ya’.” His smile appeared more menacing and KK just gave him the same blank look, unfazed by the change in expression. At this point, he was slightly irked that he couldn’t make her squeal like the humans he had met before.

“Well, there’s really no use in not trying.” she shrugged and walked by the stationary skeleton only to be met with a foot of snow outside the door.

“Heh… hope the weather is… _snow_ problem”

She gave him a blank stare yet again. Well, at least she wasn’t screaming like Papyrus did when he told a pun ... or threatening him like when Papyrus was in a particularly bad mood.

She looked at him, looked at the door, and promptly walked out in the snow, shutting the door in Sans’s face.

“Huh. _Snow_ reaction.”

KK was walking through a foot of snow. her feet were cold as hell. Well, at least this place seemed like her kind a of place. A special hell that she belonged in.

She decided to explore to see who might hire a human. Judging from the sneers in her direction - let it be noted that there were more in her direction than in other monsters’ directions - the chances were slim as hell.

She had tried to score a job with an angry looking bunny running a shop. Well, describing her as angry was entirely unnecessary. Who wasn’t angry in this place? Nevertheless, all KK had received was a prompt “Fuck off if you’re not buying” followed by a harsh glare. At that point, KK had taken the obvious hint and left.

The ‘libraby’ had been the next stop. Books seemed easy to KK. It was people she disliked. And she absolutely detested the library worker. They had the true library spittle effect that KK couldn’t stand. And the library wasn’t looking for help anyhow. When she had asked, she was greeted with a ‘Shut the fuck up in here!” followed by a “Shhhhhhh!” when she tried to say anything else. That was how she had known about the spittle. A face full of spit later, she finally left. She wasn’t at the point of violence yet, but she was not afraid to fight the library employee in the least.

Her next stop was some ‘i-scream’ stand. She thought it sounded dumb but a job was a job. Either way, her opinion didn’t matter. The guy had just glared at her, gesturing to the menu. She had found the flavors interesting though. ‘Dead blue’, ‘murder red’, and ‘putrid purple’ were all on her list to try, followed by ‘Fuck you up green’ and a gray flavor simply labelled ‘Dust’. Morbid.

Her last stop was some sort of restaurant? She didn’t realize it was a bar until she stepped inside. It was so well kept! Oh, she was hoping this was the one. And then the bartender stepped out of the back and she was instantly warmed. Holy shit - he was made of fire! That was cool as hell!

“Hey, bartender!” she gestured toward the man made of fire.

He looked annoyed at being bothered during his work. His flames shifted somewhat, becoming whiter and flaring for a second in what she could only interpret and a scoff.

“Ya hiring?”

The bartender looked at the female strangely. Yes, she was definitely a human. But no-one else had really offered their services before. What if she was a money sink though? Why would he hire someone who was a waste of his money? Then, an idea hit him - he could have the bar open even when he wasn’t there. That would be a plus. But he’d have to pay her. That was a definite minus. And he wouldn't let her cook food. There was also the reality that she was a human. He knew what humans looked like and this female he’d never seen before definitely was one. Well, if anyone killed her in his bar he supposed he could always take back all the gold she held. If he never helped her with rowdy customers, she was even more likely to die. And then he could both get gold and maybe even sell her soul to the king or Papyrus for a price. His good business senses were tingling. Not to mention the fact that the human’s mere presence would attract customers, thus making other monsters be forced to buy something from his establishment because their pride wouldn’t allow them to say that they came purely for a look at their potential prey - the human standing in front of him.

He gave the human female a strangely evil looking grin.

_”What’s your name, human?”_

___________________

The foster care office was pure hell. Frisk was sitting in the seat - the one she’d slept in for the last 3 days. Her caseworker was just sitting at her desk, exhausted as one would think a woman who had slept seven hours in the last 3 days would look. It was policy that a caseworker had to get all minors into a home before they could return to their own home. 

At this point, all of the group homes were too full to take Frisk and the other homes already had as many children as they would accept. Frisk’s caseworker had probably called at least 100 homes at this point and they were both just ready to get a good night’s sleep in not an office chair.

When Frisk was half asleep, she heard her caseworker sigh, and then walk over to the young adult sitting in the chair.

“Annabelle? I found a free house, but … I’m not sure about it. I need your opinion.”

A single eye cracked open slightly. Frisk never really looked like her eyes were fully open, but the caseworker had deduced her eyes were a deep brown - one that had been somewhat warmer in her younger years than the strange piercing sensation she got when the girl looked at her now.

“Sure,” Frisk replied, getting off of her makeshift ‘bed’ (see: crappy office chair) for the past three days and walked over to look at the details for the home. 

Oh, great. A creepy double trailer in the woods. Secluded. Pleasant. A couple lived there. The man was bald and looked like he was blind in one eye from the photo. And his wife was listed as someone who didn’t talk, not indicating whether it was by choice or not. The wife stared blankly at the camera for her photo. They, along with their secluded abode, looked creepy as hell.

“Is it our only option?” Frisk questioned.

“As this point, yeah. I … can wait for another home if you want?” God, she sounded exhausted.

“Your son’s birthday is tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, it’s his fifth birthday,” she sounded resigned to miss it.

“It’s only 3PM. We could still take me there and you could get a shower and sleep?”

“Annabelle, I don’t want you to live with strange people just because of my son’s birthday.”

“Listen, I don’t think another great home is gonna come along any time soon. I’ll be there for a while, then I’ll complain if it’s awful and you just take me out later. Deal?”

“If … you’re really up for it?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Okay, Annabelle. I’ll … make the call.” Frisk started to walk away to get her stuff.

“And Annabelle…?” Frisk turned around to see her caseworker with a genuine smile.

“Yeah?”

“...thanks.”

\---

“What a shithole,” Frisk stated as they drove up the driveway. “Looks like a serial killer came up here to die alone.”

Frisk’s caseworker looked uncomfortable. “Jesus, I hope not,” was her reply. “You sure you want to stay here?”

“Don’t worry, it’s temporary.”

The caseworker sighed and they got out of her car. God, double trailers in the woods were scary. Not to mention the fact that the place looked kinda dirty, a bit rusty, and had that strange pile of random scrap in front of it like some homes did.

Then the couple came out. They were even creepier in person. The man did look like he had a blind eye. His other eye was a piercing green and his bald head wasn’t even shiny. He had no beard but his wrinkly face did nothing to make him look better. A beard might’ve made the guy even less ugly. He was rather thin and wore jean overalls with a plaid shirt. A straw hat might’ve topped his outfit off, but he chose to parade his pale, bald head around.

His wife followed behind him, perpetual blank stare no less unsettling than in the photo. A tattered floral dress was her choice of clothing. Her blonde hair - with only the beginnings of greying - was tied securely in a low ponytail and her face held no makeup to try and soften the blow of her wrinkly, inexpressive face.

Frisk’s caseworker appeared uncomfortable at the pair. Frisk was sharing the sentiment.

“You them foster people?” the man questioned. Frisk just briskly nodded. And then the guy looked her up and down in a … creepy way.

The two stared at the man uncomfortably, Frisk’s gaze piercing through his wrinkly, bald head.

Frisk felt a small hand grip her arm. She looked over and saw the worry etched in the caseworker’s face. “You … sure this place is okay Annabelle? We can always go.” Frisk took another look at these people and looked back to the caseworker’s haggard look - greasy hair from days of not showering, bags under her eyes from hardly sleeping, and a distinctive drool puddle on her sleeve from where she did get a couple of hours of sleep.

“Don’t worry about it. Just get some rest.” Frisk replied, watching as she hesitated and then resigned her tired self to leaving the young woman in a place she clearly seemed fine with staying for the time being.

Frisk watched as her car drove away.

“Annabelle, right?” the strange man asked. 

Frisk just nodded and grabbed her bag, then followed the two into the double-wide trailer, only looking back to see the caseworker’s car once.


	12. First days aren't pleasant...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KK's first day on the job and Frisk's first day with her new guardians.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Per usual, thanks for all the Kudos/Comments/Bookmarks/Reads!
> 
> Sorry, I know I update pretty slow. I'm taking 5 senior level CS classes at the same time, along with a 1 credit exercise class and it's mentally painful. 
> 
> Also *TRIGGER WARNING* - because general creepiness happens here. It's not much, but I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about when you read it.
> 
> And, on a side note - sometimes I'm not really sure what to reply to comments with. People say something and then I type like 6-7 replies, erase them all, and post none of them. I keep thinking stuff like 'oh, what if this is weird?' and 'this sounds super awkward'. Didn't know if anyone else felt like this? I'm even awkward on the internet. T_T Maybe I should just reply and be okay with people thinking I'm super weird.....

Sans was annoyed. Grillby’s was his place to relax away from his brother and whoever else he didn’t want to be around. And yet, here was the human. In this establishment - with a uniform no less!

“What are ya doing here, kid?”

“Working.”

“Yeesh, you couldn’t get a job somewhere else?” he replied aggressively.

She just stared at him with the same unnerving face he had come to expect. And it enraged him.

“No,” was her curt response as she got on with her duties. Since this was her first day, she was only really tasked with delivering drinks and food as well as washing tables. She also handled any orders for water, as Grillby hated the stuff (for obvious reasons). Not to mention, she had definitely attracted customers. There were many more patrons than Sans had ever seen in the place before. And half of them were blatantly eyeing up the human like she was their ticket to being rich. Then again, Sans supposed that she could be anyone’s ticket for being rich … if she was in different circumstances. In these circumstances she was claimed by the brothers if she died, protected in the bar because Grillby liked riches, and also protected by her strange time manipulation. So, in the end, nobody was going to get money from her soul. Not that the monsters staring at her greedily would know that.

Sans looked over at Grillby. He appeared smug at the amount of customers. He was probably getting a boatload of money just from her being there. No wonder such a shrewd businessman hired a walking disaster like her. It wasn’t that she wasn’t helpful - no, she appeared to be doing her tasks efficiently with little lollygagging. It was that a human was a liability. Grillby could be sought out for ‘harboring’ a human, then he and his bro could get in trouble for doing the same. However, Grillby cared little for laws. He wanted cold hard cash. Sans supposed that they could lie and say they didn’t realize it was a human and just cash-in on her if someone found out. The only problem was her weird time shenanigans. He wasn’t fond of the way she could just manipulate time to avoid death. The less he helped her, the more he would live the same events over and over. Without her abilities, the entire ordeal would’ve been over. Then again, his brother could’ve been dead from her knee-jerk reaction. That was the only reason he was grateful for her powers - his brother was alive. With that thought, he looked back at his yellow ‘drink’ and took a big swig of it. The condiment slightly burned, but in a good way that he quite enjoyed. Whooooo boy was he getting smashed tonight.

It was at that time that Sans noticed one of the monsters getting up - it was the wolf that threw ice into the river. He was scraggly and towered over KK.

“Hey, human!” he yelled, or slurred loudly to be more exact. The alcohol hadn’t been kind to him.

“What?” was her reply.

“You’re gonna die!” he yelled, aiming for the female. He swung at her with his claws and she deftly moved out of the way. It was at that moment that he heard splintering. And with that, all activity in the bar stopped. Grillby was giving off a … murdery aura. The wolf suddenly felt the need to hide his tail between his legs while Grillby stomped over. KK just remained off to the side, waiting for her boss to handle the situation or give her orders.

“No fighting in my bar.” he said, voice menacing. The wolf monster started to inch towards the door. “And you!” Grillby pointed at him. He froze. “You owe me a hefty sum now. Because you ruined the floor,” he growled. At that moment, KK likened the wolf’s expression to when a human pissed their pants - a moment that she’d actually seen many timed. She found that she quite enjoyed the expression when it had no terrible smell packaged with it. Sans saw a tiny twitch on the corner of her mouth before her face went back to her stoic expression. ‘ _So she does have emotions_ ’ he thought.

After obtaining his hefty sum from the wolf (obviously he added some tax for the inconvenience - Grillby was still shrewd after all), the monster exited the establishment. A couple other monsters left as well, their mood dulled by the anger of the ancient monster. However, plenty still remained. They were content to observe their prey, waiting for the moment when she was vulnerable. Sans supposed they were waiting for her to leave the establishment before making their moves. He just hoped she didn’t die enough to ruin his night with annoying time loops...

____________________

Well, the place was about as shitty as Frisk had expected - it looked old and a bit dusty, despite the fact that the place wasn’t dirty. In fact, the strange couple didn’t have much. The living area had a variety of seating - a recliner, an armchair and a couch - along with the standard coffee table and television (did… the TV have a dial on it?) set-up. The coffee table had a few magazines on it, the word ‘Time’ emblazoned on the cover and a layer of dust indicating that they hadn’t read nor moved the magazines for quite some time. The kitchen was equally barren and only had the base amount of food. There was a master bedroom in the back and a small “guest room” off to the side that was supposed to be Frisk’s room. Then again, could a room with only a mattress on the floor with a sheet on it and a dresser really be called a “guest room”? Oh, and there was a single lamp on the floor next to the mattress because there was no fixture installed. That made the room even less likely to be for “guests”.

Frisk noted during the tour of the trailer that she was not allowed to go into a specific room. Joe (the ‘man of the house’) had told her that it was his wife’s office. He also noted another room that was his office, but said nothing about whether she could enter. She was planning on avoiding it anyhow. The resident adults gave off a creepy vibe that Frisk wasn’t too comfortable with. There was no way Frisk was going to intentionally end up in a room with only one of them. She had been disappointed when she discovered that her door did not have a lock on it. Then again, the door was not sturdy and was only for privacy reasons - it appeared to be hollow after all. She briefly wondered why the door was different than the others in the house until she deduced that it was a later addition.

Frisk looked at the pair, hiding her disgust of the entire situation with her blank stare. “I’m going to settle in.”

The woman (Joe had called her Meredith once) just stared at Frisk like she had every other time Frisk had tried to communicate with her, while Joe just nodded and proceeded to turn on the decrepit television to a sports channel and settle into the recliner to watch the black-and-white picture.

“Oh, Annabelle!” he yelled as she walked away.

“What?”

“Dinner will be in a few. Meredith will knock on your door when it’s ready.”

“Okay,” was her simple reply as she settled in the silly “guest room”.

_____

Dinner had been gritz. Tasteless gritz and nothing else. Joe had eaten them with gusto. Meredith only took bites when Frisk wasn’t looking at her and even then, she did it slowly. Frisk ate her entire portion, not willing to give the couple room to complain about her habits.

“Do you want seconds, Annabelle?” Joe questioned after she finished the bowl.

“No thanks. If you need me, I’ll be in the guest room,” she said as she got up and walked away, intent on having as little interaction as possible.

Without much to do, Frisk settled in for the night on top of the flat sheet. Sleeping on bare mattress was not something she indented on doing. At first, she was kept awake by the situation - possible theories on what could be wrong with the people in said house were running through her mind. After a while, her mind got tired of her making up stories and she drifted off into a fitful sleep filled with unpleasant dreams.

_____

The sound of a door clicking. Soft, careful footsteps. Whispers.

“Such nice skin.” 

Was that a breeze?

“Oh and her hair is very soft.”

No, that wasn’t a breeze. Frisk squeezed her eyes closed tightly.

Wood creaked with shifting weight.

“Must be a light sleeper.”

More squeaking. Retreating footsteps. The door opening and closing again.

______

Frisk bolted awake, her breathing heavy from a nightmare. She only recalled the sound of a loud horn and people yelling - a recurring dream that she inferred came from the accident that left her in this mess. Her breathing slowly evened out and she ran her fingers through her greasy locks. Then her face fell pale as she remembered the… occurrences from the previous night. Was that a nightmare? Or was it real? The morning light filtered through the thin curtains as she pondered whether it was just a dream or not. 

For now, she was going to believe that last night’s happenings were a conjuring of her mind derived from her environment. What else was she supposed to believe? That her ‘guardian’ crept into her room in the middle of the night to be creep? Assumptions could ruin this place for her. Even though she got a creepy vibe from everything here, the two others in this house didn’t seem to harbor any ill will for her. At least she hoped they didn’t. She could call her case worker, but then what? She was at her son’s birthday party and Frisk had inconvenienced her enough already. Frisk supposed that, for now, she would just take a shower and mull it over in her mind.


	13. Fight!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KK fights in order to teach a lesson.  
> Frisk fights in order to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys! This one is a bit longer than usual, but it could be all of the spaces I needed to add. This chapter should be full of exciting stuff!
> 
> Also, if anyone is wondering, I've been using Chara for the fight narration (like *Checks). I enjoy making Underfell Chara pretty sassy haha.
> 
> Also, thanks for the kudos, bookmarks, and comments! :)
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING  
> Seriously creepy shit

Sans was upset. Her shift had ended 5 minutes ago, but with her loops Sans was a bit disoriented. The constant switching between him forgetting everything and suddenly being not-fucked-up were annoying as hell. And why was it taking her around 30 minutes each time? After probably around the 5th time (he wasn’t really sure because he kept getting super fucked up and lost count soon after he started drinking each time) he decided to figure out what was happening.

“ugh… Grillbz, I gotta go. Put it on ma’ tab.”

Grillby just flared his flames and turned his back. If he had eyes Sans would’ve seen them roll. The flame monster knew that he’d get his money in some way though - through services or Papyrus making him pay - so he just let Sans go on his way.

Sans sighed and walked around the bar. In the back, he found KK hovering over four piles of dust in contemplation.

“What happened to all yer ‘not gonna kill’?”

“Ah, well… I’m trying to figure that out…”

“What ‘cha mean?”

“I keep trying to hurt them without killing them, but hmm… I’m not really sure how to hold back with them? They seem so sturdy and then… one hit and they’re this little pile. It’s a bit… sad. They think they’re big shit and then I barely do anything and suddenly they’re just a little pile that nobody gives a fuck about.”

“Kid, how much do you know about monster combat?”

“It’s weird as fuck and my soul comes out?”

“Yeah, but do you know about attacks when you’re in monster combat?” he asked, annoyed that he had to play teacher here. She had ruined his drinking night and he wasn’t going to have another night ruined by her lack of knowledge. He had a right to get drunk without suddenly being un-drunk dammit!

“In monster fights, intent is everything.”

“Oh, so you have to aim to do something? I mean, I didn’t intend to kill them though…”

“Maybe you’re too used to humans. With monsters, if you intend to kill on the first try, you will.”

“Maybe I’m subconsciously thinking ‘kill’? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Ya.”

“Oh… so it’s a ‘train the mind’ kind of thing.”

“Ya.”

“Gah, guess it’s time to try again.” She pulled out her knife.

“Wait, ya weren’t doing that every time --”

She slit her throat.

“-- were ya?”

Grillby looked at Sans with confusion, cocking his head.

“Oh sorry Grillbz, thinking to ma’ self.”

Sans looked and saw KK leaving the back door. What the hell was wrong with that kid?

“Put it on ma’ tab,” he said tiredly and teleported to the roof. He wanted to observe the fight. Might be more interesting than getting drunk anyway. He watched as KK began opening the door and the group of monsters surrounded her. A short bear-monster leaned against the back of the bar. Two rabbits stood off to the side, smoking dog treats. A green bird-like monster stood directly in front of KK as she walked out. She closed the door, no panic present in her face at all. In fact, she seemed oddly focused as she patiently waited for them to make the first move. Sans just shrugged and waited, drinking more mustard to keep him occupied (maybe a buzz wouldn’t be so bad when he had entertainment?).

He watched as the bird approached KK.

“Hey _human_ ,” he spat out the word, as though offended.

“What?”

“Me n’ my pals are gonna be rich when we kill ya’ and hand over your soul to da’ king. What’cha think about that?”

“I think you have to kill me first.”

“Aincha’ scared, _human_ ”

“Nah, but I can see you’re scared of names?”

“Eh? Why would I learn the name of a soon-to-be-dead human?”

“Well, it’s only polite to know the name of the person you’re fighting.”

“Oh, I don’t think it will be a fight. It will be a slaughter,” he said, a cocky grin painting his face.

“I hope it won’t come to that. I just got this uniform and getting dust on it just won’t do.”

The bird-monster made an offended face.

“Name’s KK by the way. Pleased to meet you.”

“Fuck off,” and with that he lunged at her, instantly dragging her into a confrontation. Her gray heart flew out from her person as he flew right at her, fist at the ready and face looking crazed.

She immediately dodged, kicking her knee up into where she presuded his ‘gut’ would be if he was human. He sputtered in a similar way to a human. She cocked her head while processing the information. _Hmm… thinking of some of my past jobs where I couldn’t kill is really paying off here._ she thought.

As the green monster fell to the ground and sputtered, she quickly switched her attention to the others. The bear was glaring at her and his claws grew out of his paws to an astounding length. The rabbits were snuffing out the dog treats and had already amassed a bunch of the magic pellets that KK had seen in previous fights. The three monsters exchanged a quick glance and then proceeded to join in the fight. The bear lunged at KK while the rabbits threw their pellets at her while creating more for a future assault. 

KK’s first order of business was quickly avoiding the bear’s claws. She dodged downward swiftly, avoiding the side-swipe of his claws (ones that were rather similar to the comic book character she had seen… what was his name?... wolf of the ravine? werewolfine? volvo wolf scene? … ah, wait - wolverine. Yes, wolverine. The guy with the strange fruity yellow and blue suit. Yes, that was the one). She quickly shook her head. Losing herself in thoughts would only result in her killing these monsters again. She had to focus on not killing them.

It was at that point that KK remembered the console-thing. Yes, she could check them. She continued dodging the swipes of the bear’s claws - he seemed to only have a couple of different swings after all - while she silently selected the ‘Check’ option and simultaneously checked all four monsters in the confrontation.

*Kuma ATK - 23 DEF - 13  
*He’s a fucking bear in a scarf  
*And he reminds you of … ‘volvo wolf scene?’ The fuck is that?  
*Wants fame to live the easy life.  
*HP - 40/40

*Cinnamon ATK - 10 DEF - 10  
*Bunny that throws pellets. Gross. Hope they’re not _that_ kind  
*Keeps his name begrudgingly  
*Needs money because he can’t stop breeding for like… 2 seconds even. *sigh* Rabbits…  
*HP - 15/15

*Bunny Girl ATK - 12 DEF - 8  
*Taught her younger brother to throw pellets. What a family…  
*Guess they breed too much and now they’re running out of names  
*Needs money because her younger brother has too many kids  
*HP 12/12

*Geralt ATK - 53 DEF - 3  
*His defense is painfully weak. Uses physical attacks because he’s shit at controlling magic. Lameeeeee….  
*Preens his feather every morning. What a waste of time.  
*Currently passed out  
*HP 36/72

Oh… the hp changed. Huh. Maybe she should focus on that a bit. She quickly changed her pattern with Kuma from her constantly dodging to her quickly switching between quick bursts of attacks followed by dodging his and the rabbits’ attacks. Then she checked his HP again.

*Check  
*Kuma - HP 15/40  
*He’s losing, even with his ‘volvo wolf scene’ moves

She decided ot land a few more hits, her intent being to reduce his HP to a very low level - enough to harm him significantly, but not enough to kill him.

*Check  
*Kuma - HP 5/40  
*Lol he sucks

And… one more hit! He fell down for the count and now KK could focus on the rabbits. KK was breathing a little heavily, but she was nowhere near the exhaustion of the monster heaving on the ground.

*Check  
*Kuma - HP 1/40  
*Not dead. Regrettably.

She turned to the rabbits and sweat fell from their brows as they attempted to make a mass of pellets to fire at KK. They had that wonderful ‘pissed our pants’ look and she gave a terrifyingly happy looking grin. Oh boy, did she enjoy that look on enemies. Sans almost spit out his mustard at the look, but it was gone as quickly as it had come and soon she was stoic again. She darted towards the rabbits while they fired the pellets all at her at once. Normally, she’d dodge such an attack. However, she had a strange intuition that they weren’t deadly enough to get to her. 

She was getting hit with the brunt of the pellets but didn’t even flinch until around 10 hit her at once. At that point, she let out a small grunt, but continued to barrel towards the rabbit siblings and, upon reaching them, bashed their heads together.

*Check  
*Cinnamon - HP 4/15  
*Weak, but not dust. Yet.

*Check  
*Bunny Girl - HP 1/12  
*Even more weak, but whatever.

KK threw in a kick to Cinnamon's side for good measure

*Check  
*Cinnamon - HP 1/15  
*Not sure why you don’t just kill him

_Chara, he has kids_ she thought.

_So?_ was Chara’s only reply. Man, that kid was cruel.

It was then that Geralt grunted, trying to get up. KK picked up the two rabbit siblings, who were surprisingly light, and threw them on top of Kuma. Then, she began walking back over to Geralt. He lunged at her a bit wobbly - he had lost around half his HP after all. KK took the opportunity to take his HP down a few notches, but avoided striking too hard, as she didn’t want him to pass out. It seemed like he was the leader. And a cocky one at that. Oh and he was weak as hell. Geralt needed to go down a couple of pegs. 

He got close enough for her to trip him. KK shrugged, dodged his stumbling, and tripped him with her boot. He looked up at her, enraged. Huh, still fighting. Interesting.

*Check  
*Geralt - HP 29/70  
*How the hell is he not dead already with such a weak defense

KK kicked him in his side. He tried to swipe at her leg with one of his arms. She promptly stopped such an action by stepping on his arm with her other leg and pressing down lightly. His face grimaced in pain. Well, perhaps ‘lightly’ was the wrong word.

*Check  
*Geralt - HP 11/70  
*Lol he’s so weeeeeeeak. Pusssyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

She raised her foot off of his arm and then promptly slammed her ass straight down on his back (which would’ve definitely knocked the air out of him as a human, but she had no idea what monsters needed in that regard).

*Check  
*Geralt - HP 2/70  
*Easy EXP?

KK sighed. She knew Chara was pretty sadistic, but chose to ignore it in favor of giving all the monsters mercy. She had enough of the fight and just wanted to talk now. Not that these monsters would probably attack her again - she hoped they had learned their lesson.

*Mercy  
*You granted Kuma mercy  
*You granted Cinnamon mercy  
*You granted Bunny Girl mercy  
*You granted Geralt mercy  
*You gained 0 EXP and enough gold to buy a cheap hooker  
*I don’t understand you

KK’s… red?... heart slid back into her chest and the world’s color returned.

Geralt looked up at KK confused.

“I… tried to kill you.”

“Yeah.” she sighed, face now having a pink color from both the exertion and the cold.

“Why did you spare us? You too weak to kill us?”

“What’s the point, Geralt?”

“I ne’er told ya’ my name.”

“I have my ways.”

“Ugh, ya’ checked me? Whate’va. Just kill us and get it over with.”

“Heh. I said there’s no point.”

“What’cha mean? We’re easy EXP and you’re just gonna leave us? You’ll be seen as weak!”

“Me? I don’t think I’ll be the one seen as weak.”

He simply growled underneath her, giving her that angry grimace he wore so well.

“Geralt, what do you do when people look at you in a way you don’t like?”

“I tell em’ to stop.”

“And if they don’t?”

“I kill em’.”

She hummed. He was one of those. Quick to action without thinking about alternatives.

“You wanna know what I do when that happens?”

“Not really, but yer’ gonna tell me anyway ain’tcha?”

“I think about how I could make them look at me in a different way.”

“I just wipe the damn look off their face.”

“I know you do, Geralt. But I want to go deeper. What other delicious ways could your enemies look at you?”

Geralt just gulped. _Delicious?_ he thought. _What kind of fucked up description is that?_

“You want to know what my favorite expression is on pieces of shit, Geralt? Care to guess?”

“Dead?”

“No, I think that’s the face you would want to see. I much prefer a look of unrestrained fear.”

Geralt looked up at KK and the strange splitting grin on her face mixed with her wide eyes was enough to make him wish he was dusted.

“Sure, betrayal is always fun but fear is the best, don’t you think?”

“...s-sure.”

“Awwww…. you’re stuttering. And your face is priceless.”

It felt like her aura was strangling him. He couldn’t breathe when she looked at him like that. Oh, she did enjoy that look…

It was then that she leaned down towards where Geralt’s ear would be if he was a human.

“Best not try this again or… worse will happen. And you know I’m not talking about death,” she said, chuckling darkly in a way that made his magic revulse away from her.

He shivered, fear covering his face and KK gave one last cocky, pleased grin before her face went pleasantly stoic. At least, it was a pleasant look in Geralt’s eyes. Mostly because it wasn’t the grin from before.

KK just got up and started walking home, not looking back or bothering to help the weakened, half-passed out monsters from the dirty snow.

_I judged you too quickly. You’re way of doing things is still kinda fun._ Chara’s voice echoed inside Frisk’s head.

“Everyone judges me too quickly, Chara. That makes it a bit more fun, don’t you think?”

______________________

This place was a nightmare.

Frisk wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be going to a school but in the week she’d been there, neither of her ‘guardians’ had mentioned it. She just ambled around the house, doing whatever she could find to occupy her time while they were gone.

Oh, and she had been having similar occurrences to the first night. She hoped they were just dreams. Add in the fact that she wasn’t allowed to have a cellphone or use the house phone (even to call her case worker), and she was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. She didn’t even know if they had a house phone and she still actively tried to find it before the two came back to the house from wherever they were going during the day. Were they at work? She hoped so. Not that she would ever hire those two. For almost any job. Where did they work? A dilapidated crack-house? Did they make meth in some secret lab in the woods?

Either way, the nightly visits were making her extremely anxious. Dark rings were present below her eyes - a sign of her attempting to stay awake in order to fend off the strange nightmarish occurrences. They never happened when she was awake. It was like they were only in her mind or the creep knew when she was asleep (She didn’t want to ponder how. She had searched her room for cameras multiple times, but still hadn’t found any evidence of spying on her). At this point, she was desperate for the harassment to stop - whether it be from a person or her mind - so she prepared herself for another night of staying awake.

___

It was 3AM and she was worried. Her eyes were teetering towards being closed. She hadn’t really slept in at least 3 days and wasn’t sure if she could make it through the night. A small bout of panic swelled in her mind - what if she fell asleep? What if she had the same dream? What if it wasn’t a dream? And…. what if… nevermind, she was sleepy… no! She had to stay … awake …

Her eyes drifted closed and she fell asleep purely from exhaustion.

___

 

Her mind was not okay with this. She felt her brain slowly turn back on, like an old terminal - slow, but steady. She was just awake enough to be aware. The nightly terror was back again, but this time they were getting more adventurous. Their hand brushed her face first, then touched her knee. The hand slowly drifted upward until it was close to her … OH FUCK NO.

She bolted from bed, only awake in some sort of dazed panic. She couldn’t see well, but had managed to make it into the corner, blanket held protectively over her body. She couldn’t see - the room was too dark - but she did hear a faint ‘tsk’ followed by an “Even after three days?” and her door opening and closing. All of a sudden, her exhaustion overtook her again and she fell into a fitful sleep, still scrunched up in the corner protectively.

___

It was morning. She wasn’t okay with what was happening. She had full faith that her mind wouldn’t make shit up like what had happened last night. She knew what she was gonna do today. She packed her shit in a small bag and frantically searched for any kind of phone. It didn’t matter what kind, she knew her case-worker’s number by heart. There was no car in the driveway and she knew she couldn’t escape from such a secluded place on foot easily, so phone was currently her only viable option. She searched all of the rooms, still coming up empty-handed. Joe’s office was also a bust. In fact, it looked like he didn’t go in there much (the place was dusty as hell). It was then that her eyes fell upon a door she hadn’t entered before - Meredith’s office. At this point, she didn’t give a shit about the rules. She would be gone afterward no matter what. If she didn’t find a phone in her office then… she’d just have to chance it on foot. It would take a long time and she wouldn’t be able to follow the trail, but she would get out no matter what it took.

She turned the handle and found the door to be - unsurprisingly - locked. However, the handle looked really cheap and if there was one thing she had learned from some of the kids in group homes it was how to unlock doors. Some of them had been locked in their rooms for no reason and had learned how to get out of said room. 

She made her way to the kitchen a took a thin, sharp knife. Then, she plunged the knife between the door and its frame above the lock and slid it downward, pointing the tip of the knife downward enough to get it on the other side of the metal piece that kept the door in place. She move the knife forward enough to push the metal piece back and heard the satisfying click of the door opening. The lock was still locked, but the door swung on its hinges. She looked in the door and … it was not what she expected. Frisk had expected an office, not a creepy, dark staircase downward. Now, she was definitely questioning her choices. But why would they keep the basement hidden? She wanted to find out just as much as she wanted to find a phone so she took up the knife and made her way down the stairs. She wanted some protection if anything went wrong and the knife seemed like a reasonable choice.

Frisk slowly crept down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, there was a small ceiling light. She pulled the chain and it illuminated… regular household supplies. Cans of spray paint, a rogue lightbulb, a couple of tire irons, and a coffee-can full of screws. It was pretty normal, but definitely not an office. She was about to walk up the stairs until she noticed a door - hardly visible, painted to look like the surroundings - in the back of the basement area. Why the hell would there be a door in the basement? Perhaps that was the office? She walked over to the door and placed her hand on the handle. She could hear her heartbeat, but wasn’t sure why. It was just an office, right?

She opened the door, slightly surprised that it wasn’t actually locked, and glanced inside.

What. The. Fuck.

A raggedy mattress lay in the corner with a plethora of stains - some of them blood, some… well, she didn’t know, but she didn’t want to know either. A camera was set up by the mattress. Nasty.

In one corner, there was a screen. It was a ... thermal imaging camera. It could detect heat signatures. Oh shit - maybe that was how they could tell she was sleeping? They could put it in the stairwell (the basement stairwell was situated right next to the room) and she would never find it. Frisk had vaguely heard that body temperature lowers during sleep, but they also could’ve observed her movements to make a good guess of when she was asleep. This was getting more horrifying by the minute. Then she noticed the wall filled with chains and instruments that looked like they were used for torture. And they weren’t entirely clean either. Underneath the instruments were binders with names on them. At this point, she was glad she hadn’t eaten today. She was about to run the fuck away when she noticed the board on the wall. There was a corkboard on the wall, covered in pictures with red X’s on their faces. All of them looked underage and most were female. And her picture was sitting in the middle of the board without a red X, but with a date. A date that was two days away.

She bolted, but was careful not to disturb anything in the room. She couldn’t tip them off that she _knew_. She closed the door on the disturbing hideout, turned off the basement light, and closed the ‘office’ door. Then, Frisk put the knife back in the block, grabbed her small bag of shit, and bolted out the door as fast as possible. There had been no phone, but Frisk had all the evidence she needed to determine that she should get the fuck out. There was no chance of survival if she stayed here. Those red X’s couldn’t be a good sign. And shit, she should warn the police too. Frisk sprinted through the woods as fast as humanly possible, making sure that she went in the general direction that the driveway was going, but not being too close to it. She didn’t want to be seen. If she was seen running away, she had no doubt in her mind that they would kill her on the spot.

She was DETERMINED to get away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just for funsies, I thought of 'volvo wolf scene' from this picture I found once online:


End file.
